[ad_1]
About 50 thousand people will be without unemployment benefit next year, according to data released by Deputy José Soeiro, from the Left Bloc, and attributed to the Government.
We currently have in Portugal coverage of unemployment benefits that is around 58%, if we consider only the registered unemployed ”, which means that, considering the discouraged inactive,“ most of the unemployed do not have access to unemployment benefits . “, which are sometimes below the poverty line, said José Soeiro, deputy of the Bloco de Esquerda, at a press conference, trying to justify the need for new support.
In addition, “the data are from the Government itself: in 2021 there are about 50 thousand people who today have unemployment benefits and who will lose unemployment benefits because the concession period will end.”
The press conference was called to illustrate what separates the Government Block in the design of the new social benefit, the so-called support for the income of workers, which for Catarina Martins, as stated in the draft law on State Budgets But it is a “prolongation of extraordinary support that has already been revised downward.”
The unemployed who lose their unemployment benefit next year are only one of the target audiences of this benefit, which should also reach the self-employed or domestic service, although with very different rules. The idea, at least in the case of employees, is to refer to the poverty threshold (501 euros), ensuring differential support with a minimum value of 50 euros.
The Left Block proposes that the minimum value be 219.4 euros (0.5 IAS), that the way of considering family income is more generous, which would increase access and the amount of the benefit, and that at the same time Government revises the rules on unemployment benefit (restoring the duration that existed before 2012 and associating the calculation to the minimum wage) and social unemployment benefit (increasing the value and correcting the way of considering the income of children, for example ).
Together, these changes would have an impact on the Block’s accounts of 778 million euros, of which 420 million in the new installment. A value that is even below the Government’s estimate – up to 450 million – difference that the Block explains with the fact that some people, in its proposal, go to the subsidies that already exist.
What about a couple living on minimum wage?
To illustrate the differences, the deputy presented a series of simulations that try to show who will be left out of the service.
Thus, according to the calculations presented, in the case of a couple in which both people receive the minimum wage (about 659 euros next year), if one of them loses their job, they are not entitled to unemployment benefits, due to strict rules. With the new installment, you begin to receive only 113 euros in the accounts of the Left Block until the end of 2021 (the minimum amount is 50 euros).
Considering another couple who had average incomes, if one of them runs out of the benefit in the next year and the spouse has a salary of 860 euros, the unemployed person is excluded from this benefit.
This is related to the so-called resource condition, which ignores the value of the second element of the family and children, assuming that in an aggregate there are economies of scale. In short, the second adult is worth 70% and the child is worth 50% to guarantee everyone an income above the poverty line (501 euros).
Thus, in the second case mentioned, the 860 euros are divided by 1.7 (1 for the first adult and 0.7 for the second), and the result is 506 euros. As it is above the poverty line, there is no place for payment of the benefit, as described in the state budget proposal.
Likewise, a self-employed person who has lost his income of 700 euros per month can receive 245 euros, which is below the amounts that were guaranteed in previous installments.
Another problem raised concerns young people who have not yet left home. As parents’ income is considered, they may lose access to support.
The block has four priority areas, but does not require any response
Catarina Martins, who says she is waiting for the Government’s counterproposals to guarantee the viability of the budget, reiterated the four areas that she considers to be a priority: the strengthening of the National Health Service with policies that ensure that medical competitions are not abandoned – a through an example of full dedication – retirement from work areas – with the extension of restrictions on layoffs or the replacement of severance pay – Novo Banco – the Block does not allow any transfer – and this new social benefit.
And if the Government does not give in the amount of severance pay, can the Block still make the budget viable?
“The budget must be analyzed as a whole,” replied the coordinator of the Bloco de Esquerda.
“We are open to counterproposals, of course, with the following criteria: what is the concrete effect on people’s lives,” he said, recalling that in last year’s budget 38 million euros were registered for the informal caregiver for support that they only finally arrived. up to 32 people.
“It is not stubborn or intransigent by the Esquerda Bloc to want to discuss the specific conditions in which each of the advertisements will have an effect on people’s lives,” he said. “Parliament runs the risk of passing a state budget that announces something that then does not exist in people’s lives.”
News updated at 15:44 with more information
[ad_2]
