“The support coverage decreased from covering 60% to 80% of the poverty threshold in 2010 to about 40% in 2023,” according to the study “The Erosion of the Portuguese Minimum Income Protection Scheme,” which reports “a structural weakening of the main instrument against social exclusion” in Portugal.
Researchers concluded that the Social Integration Income (RSI) has lost effectiveness due to various legislative changes and periods of austerity: “It never regained the capacity to ensure a decent standard of living.”
The study indicates that the RSI hasn’t kept pace with the rising cost of living and wages for years.
The research was conducted by Luís Manso, Renato Miguel Carmo, Maria Clara Oliveira, and Jorge Caleiras and will be presented at a conference taking place today and Thursday in Lisbon.
“We consider it important to produce knowledge based on scientific evidence about a benefit that has been subject to consecutive political and ideological mystifications,” says the director of the Inequality Observatory at ISCTE, Renato do Carmo, as quoted in the accompanying statement on the release of the study.
The conclusions highlight the need for a reformulation of the RSI to restore its function as a “social safety net” and align it with the current reality of the labor market and prices.
Among the recommendations are re-establishing the link to the national minimum wage and creating calculation criteria “more sensitive to family composition” and variations in the cost of living.
“Families with children benefit from some compensation through complementary benefits, but the amount received by parents remains below the poverty line,” the document states.
The study notes that replacing the minimum wage reference with the Social Support Index (IAS), introducing more restrictive criteria, and redefining the concept of income have cumulatively reduced the support.
“If we add to this the fact that the number of RSI beneficiaries is at an all-time low, we are looking at a benefit that has significantly eroded in its ability to meet the basic needs of people living in poverty,” argues Renato do Carmo.
