The president of the Food Bank against Hunger warned on Tuesday that the support of 125 euros for those who receive up to 2,700 euros may not be the most adjusted and proposed pedagogy to help families manage money.
Speaking to the Lusa agency, Isabel Jonet began by mentioning that, given the situation of the families that need it most, “all help is very welcome” and that the payment of 125 euros to all people who earn up to 2,700 euros gross per month ” It offsets a little the additions of basic products”, such as food, gas, electricity or the value of the rent.
He stressed, however, that it is a one-time aid, paid only in October, when the future perspective is that the value of inflation does not drop and, therefore, families continue to have needs.
He admitted that it is a “very good measure at this time”, but expressed doubts about whether or not it is the most adequate in structural terms, since “it is an immediate relief”.
When granting aid of this type, unique, it is important to educate and explain to people that all these funds cannot be spent at once, because that can have an effect contrary to the level of inflation”, defended Isabel Jonet. , arguing that an increase in demand for certain products can lead to an increase in their prices.
The president of BA defended, therefore, that it is necessary to be “careful” to explain to people that these aids serve to compensate for the rise in prices, but that this reality is not expected to change in the short term.
“Families have to understand that they have to adjust their consumption and their needs to this new reality,” he stressed, adding that this educational work must be done by the Government itself.
Isabel Jonet has said that she would like more structural measures to be announced and that she hopes that the Government has other types of plans and measures to adopt both to support families and companies, recalling that, in relation to the latter, “there are work to do in terms of employability and promotion of people”.
The official also mentioned that she did not understand why pensioners with pensions “of 4,000 and 4,500 euros also receive half of their pension.”
Here there is a mismatch between the aid given to pensioners and families who have more burdens and have children, the equivalent was not given, having once been given 50 euros for each child, “he criticized.
He recalled that a pensioner with a pension of 5,318 euros – the maximum amount covered by the half-pension support paid in October – will receive more than 2,500 euros of aid, the “equivalent to 20 families that usually have children”.
“Here there is a disproportion between the highest levels of pensioners and the most needy families, with greater burdens and other types of needs,” he said.
For the official, it will be inevitable to multiply the support given to families, taking into account that the situation will not change soon and inflation will continue to rise, to which is added the increase in interest rates.
Isabel Jonet recalled, by the way, that the The rise in inflation is not only a consequence of the war in Ukrainebut also “from all the money that was injected into the economy during the pandemic”, stressing that “if the war ended, inflation would not drop overnight”.
For this reason, he defended more structural fiscal measures that help the middle class because “it will be burdened with taxes.”
He criticized what he called welfare measures, which only prolong poverty, noting that in Portugal “there is almost an incentive for people to want more social support and less responsibility in their own lives.”
Source: Observadora
