Money should be paid by end of year
Prime Minister António Costa has announced another ‘extraordinary support’ to help the nation’s poorest families cope with inflation.
The €240 lump sum payment should be paid by the end of this year, and will be going to roughly a million citizens – beneficiaries of the government’s previously announced €60 food support programme.
Mr Costa made the announcement in interview with Visão magazine.
The new measure is due to be approved by the Council of Ministers tomorrow.
The PM described it as “a huge effort” by his executive.
Money should start being paid from December 23, he told the magazine – with all those qualifying for this extra help receiving it before the end of the year.
“Inflation is very uneven in its effects,” he said, admitting “prices have risen for everyone”, but not everyone has “the same capacity to accommodate the rise in prices”.
Says Lusa, the support covers the same group of people who have already received two extraordinary instalments this year, in two tranches of €60 each, for food support.
These are citizens covered by the special electricity tariff and on minimum benefits.
The PM explains the money will be paid by Social Security “in the normal way” – meaning recipients do not have to enroll for it, or even request it. It will simply be paid into their accounts as other benefits are/ have been.
This extra help has been on the cards for some time now, albeit inflation is showing tentative signs of reducing, or at least not increasing rapidly. As reports explain, the government has concentrated efforts on families with lowest incomes. This new support follows the ‘across the board’ payments of €125 to all taxpayers (excluding pensioners) earning less than €2,700 per month, along with the payment to pensioners of ‘an extra half a pension’ in October.
The new measure is aimed at both low-income families and vulnerable pensioners.
“We found the slack (needed) for this measure”, Mr Costa told Visão.
