In her speech to the TSF Forum, Miranda Sarmento reinforced one of the proposals announced last Saturday by the President of the PSD, Luís Montenegro, at the 41st Congress in Almada, in which the leader committed to increasing pensions in accordance with the law and, in addition, “gradually and until the end of the parliamentary term, set the reference for the Solidarity Supplement for the Elderly at EUR 820”.
“This translates into the following: in 2028, the guaranteed minimum income for Portuguese pensioners will be 820 euros,” Montenegro said at Saturday’s main meeting.
Joaquim Miranda Sarmento told the TSF that, with regard to the Solidarity Supplement for the elderly, “this is the guaranteed minimum income for all pensioners”.
‘That is to say: a pensioner whose total income, not only his pension, but also other income he may have from other pensions, or of another nature, such as rent or interest, a pensioner who in 2024 has a total income of less than 550 euros. “You get a supplement, you get an extra benefit, from the level of your income up to that amount of 550 euros,” he said.
The leader gave an example and said: “If your income is 400 euros, you will receive an allowance of 150 euros. If it is 500, you will receive an allowance of 50, if it is more than 550, you will receive nothing.”
The Solidarity Supplement for the Elderly is a monetary support paid monthly to elderly people with few resources, over the age of 66 years and four months and living in Portugal.
The current value is a maximum of 488.22 euros per month and the criteria that, according to information from Social Security, count for the assessment of the social security of the elderly person are the income of the supplement applicant, as well as ‘the income of the person with whom you are married for more than two years or actually living in a union” or even “the income of the children to calculate the applicant’s family solidarity component”.
When asked about this last criterion, related to the children’s income, Miranda Sarmento admitted that this is “not an easy question”.
“This is one of the issues that we will have to evaluate later, possibly in our election manifesto, or later when we become government. At this time, we can commit, within the existing rules, to increase the value to 820 euros. Looking at the occupational conditions, especially the issue of children, is not an easy issue, because there are many different situations. We will have to make this assessment,” he stated.
When Miranda Sarmento was asked about the access conditions, she replied that the benefit in question “sets a series of requirements for recovery conditions”, but emphasized that “this supplement guarantees that no pensioner lives with an income of less than 550 euros”, a reference value in 2024, and that the Social Democrats want this value to reach 820 euros in 2028.
When asked whether the PSD admits to having revised the criteria for access to this supplement, Miranda Sarmento replied that “it is a discussion” that the party will have “later”.
‘There must be criteria and conditions for appealing, because this measure is aimed at those who actually have a very low income and will be below 550 euros in 2024. We can look at the professional conditions and ultimately make some adjustment, but they will always have to exist,” he emphasized.
Miranda Sarmento said that this addition “covers 170,000 pensioners today” and reinforced one of the guarantees already left by Luís Montenegro, namely that the proposal will not unbalance the public accounts. “Our proposal is ambitious but realistic,” he stressed.
Source: DN
