Parents with under-12s get family support in new lockdown
The worsening of the pandemic led the government to close schools and reactivated the family support for parents who had to miss work to stay with their children.
Parents of children up to the age of 12 who have to stay at home with them because of school closures can ask for exceptional family support, according to the Social Security Institute (ISS).
“The application is available,” the Social Security page showed on Thursday.
The exceptional support to families, which was applied in the March lockdown, was announced on Thursday by the prime minister, António Costa, at the end of a cabinet meeting when they decided to close schools for the next two weeks as of Friday due to the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Following the suspension of teaching and non-teaching activities in schools or kindergartens as of this Friday the 22nd, the government has decided to reactivate the exceptional support measure for families,” the Social Security website said.
The institute said that under this mechanism, “parents who have to be absent from work to provide unavoidable care for their child or dependants are entitled to receive support corresponding to 2/3 of their basic salary, with a minimum limit of 665 euros and a ceiling of 1,995 euros.”
“This support covers employees, the self-employed and domestic service workers,” it said.
The ISS pointed out that “the situations in which remote working is possible are not covered.”
“In order to access this support, parents must fill in the GF88-DGSS declaration and send it to their employer” and this declaration “also serves to justify absences from work”, Social Security explained.
The support is due in cases of assistance to children or other dependents who are under 12 years of age, or, in the case of assistance to children or dependents with disabilities or chronic illness, without any age limit.
According to the information, “only one parent can receive this support at the same time and only one support is payable, regardless of the number of dependent children or dependents.”
“If one parent is remote working, the other will not be able to receive this support,” the institute said.
The support is provided in equal parts by the Social Security and the employer, who is responsible for paying all the support.
