Disabled Citizens’ Hotline. Problems and delays in the Social Benefit for Inclusion and medical certificates were among those that generated the most calls

To mark International Day of the Person with Disability, the Ombudsman presented a brief assessment of the activity developed by the telephone line especially dedicated to supporting these fellow citizens. Throughout 2022, in the period between 1st January and 30th November, the Disabled Citizens’ Line received 502 calls, a number that exceeds the total received in the previous year. Evolution…

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National Preventive Mechanism carries out joint visits to places of detention with UK counterpart

The NPM – National Preventive Mechanism carried out joint visits to places of detention with its UK counterpart in November. The British NPM participated in the visits to the Detention Space at Lisbon Airport and to the Torres Novas prison establishment, and the Portuguese NPM team took part in the inspection of Garth prison, in Lancashire. The joint visits stem…

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Ombudsman received the Parliamentary Secretary of State of the Federal Ministry of Justice of Germany

The Ombudsperson, Maria Lúcia Amaral, received, on 25 October, the Parliamentary Secretary of State of the Federal Ministry of Justice of Germany, Benjamin Strasser, accompanied by the Head of Division for Coordination and Cooperation Affairs within the European Union, Lutz Roth, and the Minister Counsellor of the German Embassy, Ludwig Blaurock. During the meeting, issues related to the role of…

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International Day of Older Persons. Health is the most recurrent theme in requests for assistance received by the Senior Citizens’ Hotline

The Ombudsman’s Senior Citizens’ Hotline received 1,239 calls to date this year, with the greatest number of requests for assistance related to health (167). This data may confirm the inversion observed in 2021, when, for the first time in the 23 years of existence of this line dedicated to assisting senior citizens, health questions exceeded those related to social responses,…

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Foreign citizens. Lack of articulation between the Institute of Social Security and SEF compromises access to social benefits

The Ombudsman addressed an alert to the competent authorities after receiving various complaints from foreign citizens reporting difficulties encountered with services provided by the Institute of Social Security (ISS, IP) that are not taking into account the exceptional rules in force in relation to the regularity of their stay in national territory, thereby blocking access to various social benefits. At…

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Long careers. Ombudsman Office questions the Government on the application of the early retirement regime

The Ombudsman’s Office sent a letter to the Secretary of State for Social Security in which it questions the restrictive manner in which the Civil Servants Pension Scheme (CGA) is applying the rules of access to early retirement for long contributory careers (46 years). For the purposes of access to this form of early retirement, the CGA has been demanding…

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FIO. XXV Network Meeting, General Assembly and Congress on the theme “Pandemic, good governance and Human Rights

The 25th magna meeting of the Ibero-American Federation of Ombudsmen (FIO) took place between 24 and 26 November in the Dominican Republic under the theme “Pandemic, good administration and Human Rights The meeting allowed representatives from 22 Ibero-American countries to analyse and exchange points of view, based on their experiences, on the impacts of the pandemic, in particular among those…

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