The Ombudsman sent a letter to the Secretary of State for Social Security and to the Deputy Secretary of State and for Fiscal Affairs, in which she requested that efforts be made in order to overcome the situation experienced by companies that have been awaiting, for several months now, attribution of extraordinary support for progressive recovery of activity, wherein the…
The Ombudsman, Maria Lúcia Amaral, will conduct the process with maximum speed to present a proposal for compensation to the family of the Ukrainian citizen Ihor Homeniuk. The Ombudsman’s intervention follows the Resolution of the Council of Ministers approved today, in which the State assumes responsibility for paying compensation to the family of Ihor Homeniuk, who died on 12 March…
The Ombudsman requested the Constitutional Court to abstractly review the constitutionality of the norm contained in no. 5 of article 168-A of Law no. 2/2020, of 31 March, that approved the State Budget for 2020, as amended by Law no. 27-A/2020, of 24 July, that approved the Supplementary State Budget, because it understood that this norm contains unconstitutional restrictions on…
The Ombudsman, Maria Lúcia Amaral, addressed a set of recommendations to the Secretary of State for Consumer Protection, with a view to protecting the rights of consumers, particularly the most vulnerable, in the context of television competitions which call for more expensive telephone calls. In accordance with Article 38 of his Statute, the Ombudsman’s recommendations are addressed to the body…
Following inspections, which confirmed irregular practices that harm citizens’ rights, the Ombudsman sent to the management of Social Security institutes and to the government a set of recommendations aimed at correcting such practices, as well as improving the methods and working conditions in these services responsible for the execution of forced collection processes for debts to Social Security. Motivated by…
The Ombudsman notes as positive the changes introduced by Decree-Law no. 20-C/2020, of May 7, to Decree-Law no. 10-A/2020, of March 13, in order to strengthen support for self-employed workers and members of statutory bodies of legal entities in the current economic and financial climate caused by the epidemiological outbreak that the country and the world are facing, but points…
The National Prevention Mechanism (NPM) decided to gradually resume monitoring visits to areas where people are deprived of their liberty, after the suspension of face-to-face activity decided in March following the OVID-19 pandemic, in line with the guidelines of the Directorate General for Health (DGS, in Portuguese) and the option of other international NPMs. During this month of October,…
Established by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 14, 1990, today we celebrate the International Day of Older Persons. Given its particular vulnerability in the current pandemic context, it is recalled that the promotion and protection of the rights of the senior citizens is one of the priorities of this State body, currently headed by the Ombudsperson…
The issuing or revalidation of medical certificates of multipurpose incapacity has experienced very significant delays. This conclusion was the basis of a recommendation addressed last February by the Ombudsman to the Government, with proposals that are still under analysis. The outbreak of the pandemic has made this situation much worse. The public health doctors, who generally composed the medical boards…
In 2019, the Ombudsman received 51,313 requests through the various channels available to citizens (6.6% more than in 2018), and 9823 complaint procedures were opened, representing an increase of 5% in relation to 2018. Compared with 2017, the growth in new complaint procedures is 26%; taking 2016 as a reference, the increase is 42%. In 2019, therefore, the activity indicators…
