The Minister of Labor and Social Security guaranteed this Wednesday that “there are no limits or any guidance to reduce” the number of special educational subsidies granted, revealing that the number of processes granted has increased by 70%.
The possible cut in social support for children and young people with disabilities, in particular the special education subsidy, led the parliamentary groups of the Liberal Initiative, Bloco de Esquerda and PSD to request the presence of Minister Ana Mendes Godinho in the work commission parliamentary, Social Security and Inclusion, where he was this Wednesday morning.
Ana Mendes Godinho assured the deputies that “there are no limits or any guidelines to reduce anything” when it comes to the special education subsidynoting that, on average, only 18% of applications are sent for consideration by multidisciplinary teams before a final decision is made.
According to the minister, the number of applications submitted to Social Security doubled between the 2016/2017 and 2021/2022 academic years, having increased by 70% to some 6,000 cases and referred to multidisciplinary teams.
Ana Mendes Godinho said that there are more than 10,000 children supported and that since 2016 the approval rate is 80%, even for the 2021/2022 school year.
The Secretary of State for Inclusion added that the Social Security Institute received until September 27, and referring to 2021/2022, 32,758 applications for the special education subsidy, and on December 31 of last year they had already entered 29,266 orders .
“We are close to 3% above the value of the subsidies granted in the same period,” said Ana Sofía Antunes.
Regarding the delay in the payment of the subsidy, the Secretary of State explained that the payment is made against an invoice and that “there are those who deliver everything at the same time or those who deliver in two or four packages. [de faturas]”.
He also explained that, unlike the other supports, which are paid monthly, This subsidy is paid after the presentation of the bill because “it is intended to pay for a service and this does not happen with any other service”.
Ana Sofía Antunes acknowledged, however, that the ISS takes, on average, between three and four months to pay the special education subsidy to families.
As the parties’ requests for the minister’s hearing were filed in June, the Secretary of State also said that from June to now the number of cases granted increased from 16,000 to 23,000.
Source: Observadora
