Carta Social

“On 1 September, one of the most important measures of the policy to support children and in particular families with children comes into force: free crèches", said the Prime Minister, António Costa, during a visit to the crèche Luís Madureira of the Brotherhood of Santa Casa da Misericórdia da Amadora, accompanied by the Minister of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security, Ana Mendes Godinho.

“It is a gradual process, which this year applies universally to all children born since 1 September 2021. Next year it will be extended to children attending 1st and 2nd grades and finally in 2023/2024 to all children attending crèches", he explained.

António Costa said that the State no longer exclusively supports lower income families (1st and 2nd brackets) and now covers all children regardless of the families' income. It becomes a measure of a universal nature.

"In this specific crèche there were 10 children covered by free of charge and now 48", he exemplified.

"It is a very important process because it will mean very important support for the income of families, especially in such a difficult context as the one in which we are living from a great increase in inflation," he said.

The Prime Minister also stressed that “this measure has to be accompanied by an increase in the supply of places in crèche, as we have many children on a waiting list”.

António Costa explained that the agreement that the Government concluded with the Union of Mercies, the Union of Mutual Societies, the Union of Cooperatives and the CNIS - National Confederation of Solidarity Institutions, foresees both under the Recovery and Resilience Plan and the PT2030 itself, to create more crèche places. The goal we have is to expand in the coming years another 10,000 crèche places across the country to seek to meet the needs of families who seek crèche and do not yet have it.

The Prime Minister also said that "we are working so that we can have association agreements already next year to also support private sector crèches in those areas where there are shortages of crèche places and which are not satisfied by the social sector. It is a way to accelerate this fundamental measure to support the better reconciliation of professional, family and personal life of Portuguese families and to have better conditions so that the country can face the demographic challenge that lies ahead.

António Costa said that "this measure of crèches is not an isolated measure, but is part of the set of measures that we have been adopting to support childhood and families with children". The Prime Minister recalled that the Council of Ministers approved two measures “of the utmost importance”. Firstly, the updating of the various steps of the family allowance. As you know, fortunately, the national minimum wage has increased very significantly in recent years, by 40%, and the family allowance brackets have not kept up with the same pace of growth, which means that families who had family allowances have lost it as a result of this increase in the national minimum wage.

The other measure is the Child Guarantee. We know that there are about 123,000 children in our country who are in families at risk of extreme poverty. For these children there is an increase in this support so that we can promote the eradication of poverty and rescue these children. The support will be €100 per month from January 2023, and up to €70 per month," he explained.

Between free crèches, updating the family allowance levels, increasing the family allowance and creating the Child Guarantee, the Government takes this year "a very important step to achieve the objective of having a solid policy of support for childhood that helps us face the demographic challenge and, in particular, support for families with children", concluded António Costa.

Source:Government Portal