The Minister of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security, Mendes Godinho, said that the labour measures provided under the statute of informal caregivers have already been presented to the social partners.

“And our goal is to include them in the revision of the Labour Code, which we are working on”, said Ana Mendes Godinho.

In this matter, the minister said that the Social Security Institute (ISS) received about 7,000 requests for recognition of the status of informal caregivers, a number that she admitted to be low, despite the “great effort” of communication by social security, who “even emailed all people potentially covered by the statute to make the request”.

"The pandemic also affected the start of these projects and our commitment is total in order to reinforce the dissemination and we are going to launch a national campaign in the media to share this further still ", said the minister.

In her initial intervention, the minister also said that the extension of pilot projects to the entire national territory - since they are only operating in 30 municipalities - has regulations ready, taking into account that the term of one year of operation of the projects ends on June.

The status of informal caregiver is foreseen for those who provide regular or permanent care to others who are in a situation of dependency.