This Thursday, the Council of Ministers approved an immediate increase in the Solidarity Supplement for the Elderly in the amount of €50 starting in June.
This measure now covers the 145 thousand elderly people who receive this supplement and will cover, as announced by Prime Minister Luís Montenegro, all those who from now on are entitled to receive this social benefit.
Luís Montenegro reaffirmed the Government’s intention to increase, within the legislature, the value of the CSI to €820. And he even says that he hopes to “reach this value before the end of the legislature”.
The maximum value of the CSI is currently set at €550.67 at the beginning of the year, then rising to €600 per month in June.
As explained in site of Social Security, currently citizens who are entitled to CSI receive, monthly, “1/12 of the difference between your annual resources and the reference value of the supplement (in 2024 it is €6,608.00)”.
The Government decided to eliminate the appeal condition according to which the income of the children of CSI candidates could make access to this benefit unfeasible. “From now on, the income considered for candidacy purposes is solely and exclusively the income of pensioners and retired candidates”, explained Montenegro.
The Council of Ministers also approved 100% reimbursement for all prescription medicines intended for CSI beneficiaries. Until now, the State only contributed 50% of these revenues. Regarding the implementation of this measure, Luís Montenegro explained that there has already been contact between the Ministry of Health and pharmacies and that the idea is that, “in the immediate act of publication of the law”, any beneficiary of the CSI “can go to pharmacies with your medical prescription” and obtain the medicines free of charge.
In pharmacies, the change to full reimbursement for medicines may move forward as soon as the law is published. “These people are already identified in the central database of beneficiaries to benefit from the current 50% contribution and it will now be enough to change the regime to 100%”, explains the president of the National Pharmacy Association, Ema Paulino. Updating the SNS contribution is the responsibility of Shared Medical Services of the Ministry of Health and, “if it is necessary to change the pharmacy library, it is simple and done overnight”, she adds.
The Prime Minister justified these three measures as follows: “Giving greater dignity to those who are the poorest of the poor, who have the greatest difficulties, often without the means to pay for essential goods such as food or medicine. It is a policy of justice and a commitment that we will continue to make and execute.”
The conditions for access to the CSI can be consulted here.
