Covid-19 support. Ombudsman renews alert in relation to unjustified exclusions of social protection
Date of article: 18/01/2022
Daily News of: 24/01/2022
Country: Portugal
Author: National Ombudsman of Portugal
Article language: en
The Ombudsman once again addressed a letter to the Secretary of State for Social Security, drawing attention to the persistence of situations of exclusion from extraordinary social support, decreed in the framework of the Covid-19 pandemic, that generate unjustified social deprotection.
The insistence arises after the content of the first warning call, made in May 2021, signalling discrimination against the self-employed in access to subsidies for assistance to children and grandchildren in situations of prophylactic isolation, was not accepted. These subsidies continue to be awarded only to salaried workers. The Ombudsman reiterated that self-employed workers should not be discriminated against in their social protection, especially those who have had descendants in prophylactic isolation more than once, and that the correction of the interpretation conferred to the legal norm in question should be made retroactive to March 2020.