The Prime Minister announced today that parents will be entitled to excused absences to stay at home to care for children up to 12 years of age, due to the closure of schools for 15 days.
"A set of measures are adopted to support families with children aged 12 years or less: justified absences from work, if they are not telecommuting, there will be support identical to that given in the first phase of confinement," he said António Costa this Thursday, January 21st.
Regarding the support given to parents to stay at home to take care of their children, the Prime Minister said that "they are the same" in view of the general confinement of March and April "correspond to 66% of the salary".
This 66% corresponds to the gross salary, with 33% to be paid by the company and 33% by the State, excluding subsidies and supplements.
Workers who earn the minimum wage are entitled to a total amount of 665 euros. As a maximum limit, a worker can only receive the equivalent of three minimum wages: 1.995 euros.
This support is automatically granted after the company makes the request, as long as there is no possibility of the work being done in telework.
The Social Security portion is paid to the company, which then guarantees full payment of support to the worker.
This support cannot be received simultaneously by two parents, but can only be received once regardless of the number of dependent children or dependents.
Several exceptions were also announced for the closure of establishments during the next 15 days. "There are open, care choices for children aged 12 years and under whose parents work in essential services, they cannot discontinue their work activity so that they can be at home with their children", he began by enumerating.
"Food support will continue to be provided to all children who benefit from school social action," he said.
Then, “all activities related to early intervention and support for children with special educational needs will also not be interrupted
Finally, the child and youth protection commissions were fully operational to ensure that the rights and youth are protected ”.
In his speech, António Costa reaffirmed that schools "are not and were not the main focus of transmission, nor are they or were the main place of transmission".
Portugal today reached a new record of fatalities: 221 deaths in the last 24 hours, a total of 9.686 in 10 months of the pandemic. The number of cases rose from 13.544 to 595.149, according to DGS data.
