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The statute’s main priority is to support the elderly to remain in their homes and postpone their admission to nursing homes as much as possible: they have the freedom to make decisions, “including about the place where they wish to live”.
The Statute of the Elderly Person was approved this Friday, in parliament, with the votes against the PCP and the abstention of the Left Blocand other proposals in the same scope were also approved.
The Government’s proposed law, which had been before the Council of Ministers in October 2024, had the favorable votes of the PS, PSD, CDS, Chega, Initiative Liberal, Livre and the sole deputy of the PAN.
According to the Minister of Labor, Solidarity and Social Security, who presented the document in parliament, the objective is to bring together in the same legal instrument a set of rights already in force, while at the same time creating public policies that promote a active aging and valued by the whole society.
With the new statute, the family relationship is no longer a mandatory condition for the status of main informal caregiver and, if there is a family relationship with the person being cared for, fiscal coincidence between the two is no longer necessary.
The main priority of the statute is support the elderly to remain in their homes and postpone their institutionalization in nursing homes as long as possible: the statute establishes that the elderly have the right to autonomy and freedom to make decisions relating to their lives, “including the place where they wish to live”, the newspaper quotes.
To achieve this objective, the Government also promises to expansion of telecare services (for emergencies and for all types of services and repairs at home) and the expansion of State support to users of social responses so that they benefit from the private sector “whenever the public network does not respond”, without, however, giving further details.
PS project rejected
For the PS, deputy Ana Sofia Antunes presented the party’s bill, which establishes the scheme to support the autonomy, health and safety of elderly peopleand ended up rejected with votes against from PSD, CDS and Chega, to say that it included concrete measures with an effective effect on the lives of elderly people.
He argued that it is not because “a set of rights is included in a ‘had hoc’ document” that elderly people now have these rights, because “people already had them” and what they need are concrete measures such as that the PS proposed.
Livre accuses Government of theft, Bloco says elderly people were not heard
Livre deputy Rui Tavares accused the Government of having stolen an initiative from 2023, when the party proposed the creation of the Charter of Senior Citizenship Rights, which the PSD voted in favor at the time, and “return it with much fewer rights than before.”
On the other hand, Left Bloc deputy José Soeiro criticized that the Government had not heard the associations representing elderly people before finalizing the document.
In response, the minister celebrated the fact that the topic and its importance are consensual, but highlighted that there was disagreement regarding the methodology to be adopted in resolving the problems.
Replying to deputy Rui Tavares, he responded that the Charter of Senior Citizenship Rights “had no consequences” and that the Government is working to “do what has not been done”, taking the opportunity to say, addressing socialist deputy Ana Sofia Antunes, that the Elderly people’s rights existed, but not in an integrated way.
Representative José Soeiro said that the associations were heard several times and that the title of the document was suggested by one of them.
He added that the government document includes most of the recommendations made by the Chega party on the subject and that the Executive will take “faster steps than the previous one”.
In addition to the Government’s proposed law, the draft resolutions of the People-Animals-Nature (PAN) party were approved for the approval of a European Strategy for Elderly People, of the CDS-PP for the creation of a National Strategy for Active Aging, from BE for a Plan for the deinstitutionalization of elderly people, from Livre for the adoption of an international convention on the rights of older people and Chega for more dignified physical and emotional living conditions.
All these bills will now be discussed in the respective parliamentary committees.
