600€ support covers IPSS that use cars in social services

“IT IS for all IPSS [Prival Institutions of Social Solidarity] that perform these services, home support, to take and bring, therefore, all people who use vehicles in their daily lives”, said Maria do Rosário Palma Ramalho à Lusa, in Alcanena, Santarém district.

The governor answered questions about the EUR 38 million of extraordinary support approved on Thursday by the Council of Ministers for sectors particularly affected by increased fuel costs.

Of the total, EUR 30 million is for freight and emergency services and EUR 5 million for public road passenger transport, while the remaining EUR 3 million is for taxis, firemen and social services.

For social sector entities a single payment of EUR 600 is planned, as it resumes a support that was in force between April and June this year.

In the previous scheme, the EUR 600 corresponded to a support of 10 cents per litre for a reference consumption of 2,000 litres per month for three months.

When Lusa questioned the share of the EUR 3 million specifically for the social sector, the minister did not indicate an amount or the number of entities to be covered.

The Minister stressed earlier that the social action programme, mainly dedicated to the cooperation commitments with the social and solidarity sector, represents around EUR 2.4 billion.

“ The social sector has had great and huge support from this government,” he said, adding that funding has been increased by around EUR 220 million in each of the two years of governance.

The minister therefore considered that the EUR 600 announced now represent “a small aspect in global support” to the social solidarity institutions, which she classified as a “privileged partner of the government in social action”.

Rosário Palma Ramalho stressed that the EUR 38 million only corresponds to fuel-related support, integrated into a wider set of measures approved by the Government.

The package also includes measures aimed at families, including a further reduction of the IRS and an extraordinary supplement for pensioners, in addition to the extension to the end of the year of the Oil and Energy Tax Reduction Mechanism (ISP).

Asked also by Lusa about what would have to happen for the government to put on the table an increase in the minimum wage in 2027 above the expected value, Rosario Palma Ramalho referred to the social consultation agreement signed in October 2024.

“ We are complying with this agreement, that is what is on the table ", said the minister, recalling that understanding establishes a trajectory of increase of the minimum wage and the average salary until 2028.

The Tripartite Agreement on Salary Valuation and Economic Growth 2025-2028 provides that the national minimum wage, currently set at EUR 920, will increase to EUR 970 by 2027 and to EUR 1,020 by 2028.

The governor acknowledged that incomes remain below desirable, stating that the government would like “all Portuguese to earn more,” but highlighted the evolution of wages and reductions in the IRS as instruments to increase the available income of families.