The Minister of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security assured this Tuesday that Social Security will be “completely relentless” in cases of mistreatment of elderly people in nursing homes, highlighting the investment that is being made in the requalification of social responses.
According to Ana Mendes Godinho, the Social Security Institute “has been monitoring the various situations” that were recently reported on alleged mistreatment of elderly residents in nursing homes, from “O Lar do Comércio”, in Matosinhos, to Lar Delicado Raminho, in Lourinhã, or a clandestine home in Palmela.
[A“ Segurança Social] It has this mission of being completely implacable when there are situations that are unacceptable from the point of view of protecting people”, said the minister to journalists, when visiting the works of the new Integrated Social Unit of Portela of the Portuguese Red Cross (CVP).
This new infrastructure is financed by the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) and will reinforce the social offer with the creation of 59 vacancies in a residential structure for the elderly and another 80 vacancies in home care services.
Ana Mendes Godinho took the opportunity to point out that this type of investment is also a concern for Social Security, both in terms of upgrading existing responses and creating new social responses, similar to what is being done in Portela, Loures. The minister highlighted that this is a response that will promote the autonomy and independence of older people.
Asked about the evolution in the number of beneficiaries of the Social Insertion Income (RSI), Ana Mendes Godinho highlighted that it is the lowest since 2006 and that it reflects the evolution of the unemployment rate in the country, pointing out that, if there are “very high”, the RSI follows this trend with the decrease in the number of people receiving the social benefit.
O Newspaper announces this Tuesday that in January there were 195,545 RSI beneficiaries in Portugal, the lowest number in 17 years, in a series in which the highest registration took place in March 2010, with more than 404 thousand beneficiaries.