Unemployment benefits and most pensions will increase in January

  • ECO News
  • 13 December 2018

In January, the monthly minimum unemployment limit is set to increase by €6.4, while the monthly maximum will increase by €16. Pensions will increase between 0.78% and 1.6%, depending on IAS.

The maximum monthly amount of unemployment benefit in Portugal is to increase by €16 euros next year, to €1,088.30, based on November inflation values published on Wednesday by the National Statistics Institute (INE).

Average year-on-year inflation, housing costs excluded, in the 12 months to November, as published by the INE on Wednesday, reached 1.03%. That implies a 1.5% increase in the Social Support Index (IAS) to €435.33 in January, according to data confirmed to the Portuguese news agency Lusa by the Ministry of Employment.

IAS serves as the benchmark for updating various welfare benefits, including the minimum and maximum values of unemployment benefit.

In January, the minimum monthly unemployment limit is thus set to increase by €6.4 to the amount corresponding to the IAS itself, while the maximum shifts to €1,088.30.

The November inflation figures are also used to update pensions, which are to rise by between 0.78% and 1.6% next year.

Monthly pensions of up to twice the IAS, that is €870.66 this year, which includes the vast majority of pensioners, are to increase by 1.5%. In addition, pensions of up to €635 a month will be subject to an extraordinary increase of up to €10.

Pensions set at between twice and six times the IAS (from €870.66 to €2,612) are to increase by 1.03%, while larger pensions up to €5,224 are to increase by 0.78%.

Above that level, that is for pensions more than 12 times the IAS (at €5,224 euros), it will not be increased.

LUSA