The Deco association asked the Government to increase the support of 60 euros to the families’ food basket, as a result of inflation, maintain it monthly until December and extend it to large families and with falls in income.
Support for the food basket of the most vulnerable families, which aims to alleviate the rise in food priceswas created to be paid only once by Social Security, in April, to the beneficiaries of the social electricity rate, registered in March (762,320 families), but ended extended to beneficiaries of minimum social benefits that are not covered by the social tariff.
According to an official source from the Ministry of Labor, Solidarity and Social Security, the extension of the measure will result in the payment of support to “more than 280 thousand families”. In total, the support will thus reach more than a million families.
The first support was paid on April 29 and will be paid this Friday for the second time to all families in which at least one of the family members is a beneficiary of some of the minimum social benefits -such as the unemployment benefit, the old-age social pension-, Solidarity Complement for the Elderly (CSI) and Social Integration Income (RSI) and also to households in which one of the children is the holder of a 1st or 2nd level family allowance or in which the income of reference calculated corresponds to situations of extreme poverty.
Deco -Portuguese Association for Consumer Protection- considers the creation of this support of 60 euros and its extension to more families to be positive, but recalls that the forecasts do not point to an alleviation of prices, on the contrary, and that the forecast of the Inflation adds to the uncertainty of the temporary duration of this measure, which is unknown if it will last.
“Given the uncertainty of the temporary duration of this measure, we consider that it is a little below the expectations of Portuguese families“, said the lawyer from the Deco consumer service office, Ingride Pereira, in statements to Lusa.
The association says it has already seen an “increase” in requests for help from consumers struggling to cope with price hikes, families still recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic, which is not yet over, and that are facing price increases in the prices of energy, fuel and, more recently, food.
The association argues that this measure should be extended, at least as long as the current inflationary situation continues, and argues that support for the food basket cannot be withdrawn “never before the end of 2022.”
In addition, the association defends that the support should begin to cover, for example, families who have suffered the crisis and who have seen their income fall by more than 20%, due to unemployment or the closure of companies, as well as large families. heavily affected by price increases.
Regarding the amount of the aid, 60 euros, the association says it has to be adjusted against inflation forecastsbecause “it is clearly insufficient” compared to what an average family spends per month, not only on supermarket purchases but also on essential goods, such as energy and transportation, which have risen in price.
“We sent [na quinta-feira] a letter to the government […] we hope that our demands will be accepted”, said Ingride Pereira, stressing that it is insufficient to support families with 60 euros a month because “it goes for very little”.
Source: Observadora
