O Social Insertion Income (RSI) snake only 40% of the poverty thresholdhaving lost between 20% and 40% of real value and capacity to protect the most vulnerable families in the last 15 years, revealed this Wednesday the ISCTE.
“Support went from covering between 60% and 80% of the poverty threshold in 2010 to around 40% in 2023“according to the study “The Erosion of the Portuguese Minimum Income Protection Regime”, which denounces “a structural weakening of the main instrument for combating social exclusion” in Portugal.
The researchers concluded that the Social Insertion Income (RSI) lost effectivenessdue to several legislative changes and periods of austerity: “It never recovered the ability to ensure a decent standard of living”.
The study indicates that the RSI years ago it stopped keeping up with the increase in the cost of living and wages. 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 this Wednesday and Thursday in Lisbon.
The conclusions point to the need for a reformulation of the RSI to reestablish the function of a “social safety net” and adjust it to the current reality of the labor market and prices.
Among the recommendations are the recovery of the connection to the national minimum wage and the creation of calculation criteria “more sensitive to family composition” and variations in the cost of living.
The study points out that the replacement of the minimum wage reference with the Social Support Index (IAS), the introduction of more restrictive criteria and the redefinition of the concept of income had cumulative effects in reducing support.