PS/Azores asks for clarification on study of IPSS costs

O PS/Azores today requested clarifications from the Regional Government (PSD/CDS-PP/PPM) on the final report of the study of the actual costs of the Private Institutions of Social Solidarity (IPSS), for having doubts about its methodology.

“ The report commissioned by the Regional Government seems to confirm that the social responses of the IPSS are underfunded, but its methodology leaves doubts that need to be clarified and the public presentation that the guardianship made available differs from the final report in points that need to be clarified ", said the leader of the parliamentary group of the PS/Azores, Berto Messias, quoted in a party press release.

According to the MP, the public presentation indicates that 36.7% of the IPSS had a negative result in 2025, less 4.3 percentage points than in 2024, “a value that contrasts with that of the report that refers to about 40% in the two years”.

It adds that 12 of the 111 IPSS in the region “were not considered because they did not have data that could be measured, but did not clarify what criterion was presiding over the selection of 111 IPSS, nor if the sample of the study now published is 99 IPSS”.

For Berto Messias, it is also important to clarify what explains the rates of the Institute of Social Security of the Azores (ISSA) above 100% or that amount to 90%, “when it then presents data that are below this value” and data that differ from the text of the report with that of the public presentation.

“ Why the default values remained unupdated until October 2026, when the law provides for automatic updating by the average inflation of the previous year. What the [Regional] Government presents as an additional update of 4.7% is, after all, the legally foreseen update”, questions the leader of the Azorean socialist bench.

For Berto Messias, the data made public will only be relevant if the Azorean executive “says what he will do to them, at what time and at what cost, since the report talks about considering the creation of a mechanism that combines inflation, wage developments, energy and logistics, and a factor of insularity, but the public presentation speaks in introduction and creation, not making clear what the position of the Regional Government”.

The Regional Government was the promoter of the study and “should explain how the figures on which it bases its financing policy were obtained and treated and why the presentation it sent differs from the report in several respects that we believe are relevant for the clearance of the actual costs of IPSS in the Azores,” he concluded.

The study of the actual costs of the IPSS of the Azores, commissioned by ISSA and prepared by Norma Açores, will be delivered by the regional executive to the Government of the Republic.

The study, which Lusa had already reported, concludes that the actual costs of social responses in the Azores are higher than the standard values provided for in cooperation contracts and, in some cases, higher than those on the continent.

On Tuesday, in her presentation, the Regional Secretary of Health and Social Security of the Azores, Mónica Seidi, recognized the need to implement changes in the financing model of social action, but stressed that attention must be paid to the specificities of the region.

The financing of social responses in the Azores is mainly provided by the Social Security budget.

The Azorean executive awaits a meeting with the Government of the Republic, but hopes that the definition of funds for 2027 will already take account of the costs incurred in this study.

The president of ISSA, Eduardo Nicolau, said that the institute is already working on proposals to follow up the recommendations pointed out in the study, which will be developed over 2027.