Almost 163 thousand beneficiaries of the “minimum income” in January this year. Since 2006 the number has not been so low.
In January of this year, they were registered 162,952 beneficiaries of Social Insertion Income (RSI), the old “minimum income”.
This number is the lowest since 2006highlights this Monday.
The number of RSI beneficiaries has already been decreasing over recent times: compared to January last year, it is a drop of 5.7%; Compared to the previous month, there were 1,160 fewer people receiving this subsidy.
In total, there are now about 80 thousand families receiving the income.
Reasons: a economy has improved and there have been fewer people needing this help; political options have pointed to a restriction greater in this subsidy – a more “generous” RSI when the PS leads the Government, a tighter RSI when PSD and CDS are in the Executive, as now.
“There is a room for maneuver in interpreting the law by servers, which may result in greater or lesser restrictions on access to support”, summarizes Fernando Diogo, PhD in Social Sciences.
The RSI reference value rose by 5.33 euros last month, rising to 247.56 euros; is 46.09% of the value of the Social Support Index (IAS).
The value of the monthly installment was, in January this year, 155,52 euros per beneficiary; in families, the average rises to 327,50 euros for home.
But these values don’t arrive, warns Fernando Diogo: “They don’t lift anyone out of poverty. RSI is support for the poorest of the poor“.
