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The President of the Republic asked this Thursday to “comply” with the law that creates the statute of informal caregivers and more public funding in the next Budget, leaving praise for the performance of MEP Marisa Matias in this fight.
On the Informal Caregiver Day, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa participated in the national meeting organized by the National Association of Informal Caregivers, at the Gulbenkian Foundation, and requested that this problem, which he considered left “the first line” of priorities to return to the covid-19 pandemic.
“It is evident that the pandemic fell on, the statute is promulgated [em Setembro de 2019], goes into effect and the pandemic falls less than six months later. Suddenly, it went to a second level of priority, in the midst of all the confinements and all the health interventions, for a while the informal caregivers were a bit invisible, it is necessary to make them more visible ”, he appealed.
In his speech, the head of state praised the role of MEP and presidential candidate Marisa Matias, who claims to be at the side of the Association since its inception.
“She was tireless, we fought together and I admire Marisa Matias a lot, because she is like that for informal caregivers, but she is like that in life. I have great admiration for her as a citizen, as an MEP, as a rights defender and as a person of solidarity. I’m a suspect, ”he said.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa defended that, at the budget level, “it is necessary to go further in public financing” for informal caregivers. “It is only possible to launch a larger project if there is public funding, the movement cannot replace the role of the State, the autarchies, the Autonomous Communities,” he warned.
“Also here, Congresswoman Marisa Matias has been fighting in Europe and Portugal to reinforce public commitment around funding,” he added.
In his speech, the head of state questioned that only 2,700 citizens asked for recognition of the status of informal caregivers, and said that he was “amazed” by this small number, when it is estimated that there may be around one million in Portugal.
“What about bureaucratic hurdles, lack of information and mobilization – in one part natural due to the pandemic, in another part – that leads to so few informal caregivers feeling motivated to obtain this status?” He asked.
The President of the Republic argued that it is necessary to survey the real number of informal caregivers in order to regulate this status and define public policies in areas such as “labor protection, contributory careers, rest, training and health support.”
“That is why we wanted a statute, it was not to have a statute (…) In a word, we must enforce the law that was approved unanimously, which cannot be only 30 pilot municipalities,” he warned, saying. that “there is no use having laws that are not enforced.”
The informal caregiver statute, approved in July 2019, provided that pilot projects had been started in 30 municipalities on April 1, which involved support measures, including the attribution of “reference professionals in the area of Health and Social Security , which will draw up an intervention plan that will include support measures, advice, training and education of the caregiver ”.
Under these pilot projects, the main informal carers will have access to a new allocation of specific support, which has a reference value of € 438.81 and will vary according to income.
At the end of October, the Minister of Labor, Solidarity and Social Security, Ana Mendes Godinho, said in parliament that some 2,700 informal caregivers requested the recognition of this condition and announced the simplification of the legal process associated with recognition.
Asked what is the budgeted amount for 2021 for informal caregivers, the minister replied that the value is the same as in 2020, that is, 30 million euros.
