Primary Informal Carer Allowance

People who have been formally recognised as Primary Informal Carers.

It is an allowance granted to primary informal carers who fulfil the following conditions:

• The means-testing condition: the household reference income of the primary informal carer cannot exceed 1,3 times the Social Support Index (IAS - Indexante dos Apoios Sociais) value - EUR 679,25 (IAS in 2025= EUR 522,50);
• They are not receiving benefits that cannot be accumulated with the Primary Informal Carer Allowance, with the exception of anticipated old-age pensions (see information below)
• The Primary Informal Carer Allowance can be accumulated with an anticipated old-age pension under the following conditions, cumulatively: the Informal Carer must prove that, on the date of the pension application submission or up to 12 months after that date, he/she was living in the same household with a person receiving the 2nd degree of the long-term care supplement or the allowance for care provided by a third party, or the 1st degree of the long-term care supplement.

Means-testing – household income calculation

The household Income is calculated on the basis of the weighting of each household member according to the following equivalence scale:

Example: Household consisting of the applicant, spouse, minor daughter and grandmother (person receiving care).

Determination of the family income

Determination of the weighting factor

In this example, the monthly family income of EUR 2.300 divided by 2,9 results in an income of EUR 793,10 per household member.

Therefore, the primary informal carer is not entitled to the support allowance as the weighted monthly income per household is higher than EUR 679,25 [1,3 times the Social Support Index (IAS) value].

Accumulation with other benefits

The Primary Informal Carer Allowance cannot be accumulated with:

• Unemployment benefits
• Dependency benefits
• Total invalidity pension or invalidity pension under the special invalidity protection scheme
• Pensions due to occupational diseases associated with total permanent incapacity for any and all work
• Old-age pensions, with the exception of anticipated old-age pensions.

The Primary Informal Carer Allowance can be accumulated with:

• Family benefit for children and young people;
• Prenatal family benefit;
• Disability bonus;
• Occupational disease benefits;
• Relative invalidity pension, if the person concerned is below the legal age for the old-age pension;
• Survivor’s Pension
• Anticipated old-age pension, provided that the person concerned fulfils the following conditions, cumulatively:
  • the informal carer must demonstrate/prove that, on the date of the pension application submission or up to 12 months after that date, he/she was living in the same household with the person receiving care, holder of the 2nd degree long-term care supplement or the allowance for care provided by a third party, or the 1st degree long-term care supplement
  • In case the person receiving care is holder of the 1st degree long-term care supplement, he/she must be bedridden or in need of permanent care on a temporary basis or for a long period of time and this situation must be certified by the disability assessment service of the Social Security Institute;
  • the reduction in the pension amount, for the purposes of applying the sustainability factor or the reduction factor, is higher than 20%.
• Widow's/widower's pension;
• Social inclusion benefit (PSI);
• Reimbursement of funeral expenses;
• Funeral grant;
• Death grant;
• Parental allowances from the welfare system/solidarity subsystem.

The Conceitos (Concepts) tab shows, in alphabetical order, some of the concepts used within the scope of this allowance granting, namely the ‘household’ term or the household income categories taken into account for the means-testing assessment, among others.

The primary informal carer allowance is granted as of the month in which the application is considered duly complete.

The application is considered to be duly complete as from the date on which:

• The last supporting document to assess the qualifying conditions for the allowance granting is submitted;
• One of the long-term care benefits is granted to the person receiving care (the 2nd degree Long-term Care Supplement, the Allowance for Care Provided by a Third Party, or the 1st degree Long-term Care Supplement, provided that he/she is temporarily bedridden or in need of permanent care);

Suspension

• The allowance payment is suspended when:
• The informal carer stops providing permanent care to the other person for more than 30 days;
• The person who needs care is accommodated in a social response or unit of the National Network of Integrated Long-term Care (RNCCI), or admitted to a hospital for a period of more than 30 consecutive days.
• Exception: if the person receiving care is a minor and the primary informal carer keeps a permanent follow-up, the allowance payment is not suspended.
• One of the conditions required for the allowance granting is no longer met.

Payment resumption

If the situation that led to the suspension ceases to exist, the allowance payment is resumed in the month following the one in which the social security services are informed about this change of circumstances.

Cessation

The allowance payment ceases whenever the primary informal carer status ceases to be recognised.

See the information available on Recognition of the informal carer status.

Amount

The support allowance amount is equal to the difference between the sum of the primary informal carer’s income and the reference value of the allowance.

The reference value of the allowance is EUR 574,75 [1,1 of the Social Support Index (IAS) value].

Increase in the allowance

The allowance amount is increased by the amount corresponding to 50% of the contributions on the remuneration amount of 1 IAS, if the primary informal carer is registered in the voluntary social insurance scheme, and as long as he/she regularly pays the respective social security contributions.

Undue receipt of benefits

The undue receipt of Social Security benefits requires the reimbursement of the respective amount, which can be carried out as follows:

• Through direct payment

In this case, within 30 days from the date on which the debtor receives the notification from the Social Security services, he/she may:

• Pay the debt total amount;
• Request payment in monthly instalments. If this debt payment method is authorized, the instalments cannot exceed 150 months.

Failure to pay one instalment determines the maturity of the remaining instalments.

To request this type of debt payment, the person concerned must submit the application for the payment of amounts due to Social Security, form Mod. MG7-DGSS (Requerimento de Pagamento de Valores à Segurança Social).

• By offsetting with other benefits that the debtor is receiving.

This offsetting is made up to one third of the value of the instalments due, unless the debtor wishes to deduct a higher amount.

The offsetting with ongoing benefits must guarantee the debtor a monthly amount equal to the value of:

• the Social Support Index (IAS), or the value of the benefit, if it is lower than the IAS value, when the offsetting is made with benefits that compensate for the loss or reduction of work income.
• the Social Pension, or the value of the benefit, if it is lower than the Social Pension value, when the offsetting is made with other social security benefits.

IAS value in 2025 = EUR 522,50

Social Pension value = EUR 255,25

The following benefits cannot be offset:

• Benefits aimed to ensure minimum subsistence for persons in economic deprivation, unless the offsetting is due to the undue payment of the benefit itself;

• Family benefits whose entitlement results from the death of the beneficiary himself/herself.

The right to reimbursement of the unduly paid benefits expires within a period of 5 years from the date of the reimbursement request.

The application for the reimbursement of unduly paid benefits is available in the Formulários (Forms) menu or at any Social Security customer information service.

The person concerned must submit form CI 2 - Application - Primary Informal Carer Allowance and form CI 2/1 - Application - Primary Informal Carer Allowance (continuation sheet), together with the documents indicated therein, preferably via the Social Security Online Service (Segurança Social Direta) or at any Social Security customer information service.

The application form is available here or in any Social Security customer information service.

For information on how to access the Social Security Online Service (Segurança Social Direta), see the Practical Guide available here.

Duties

The informal carer must notify the social security services of situations that lead to the suspension or termination of the allowance, within 10 days of the date on which they occur, namely:

• Change of residence
• Change of household composition
• Change of income
• Beginning of professional activity
• Inability to continue providing care to the person receiving care
• Accommodation of the person receiving care in a public or private social or healthcare facility
• Withdrawal or death of the carer or of the person receiving care

Penalties

Failure to comply with the aforementioned duties, by action or omission or the use of any fraudulent means leading to the undue granting of the allowance, determines the reimbursement of the unduly paid amount and the payment of a fine between EUR 100 and EUR 700.

Household

In addition to the family benefit holder, the following persons living with him/her in common economy belong to the same household:

• Spouse or de facto partner for more than two years.
• Adult relatives and kin, in straight line and in collateral line, up to the 4th degree (e.g.: great-great-grandparents, great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, siblings, children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren, uncles, cousins)
• Minor relatives and kin, in straight line and in collateral line
• Children and young people adopted and protected by the applicant or by any member of the household and children and young people entrusted to the applicant or to any member of the household, by judicial or administrative decision from entities or services legally competent for that purpose.

Common economy

People are considered to live in common economy when they are living in the same household and have established a relationship of mutual support and sharing of resources.

The common economy situation continues to be considered when the allowance holder or any household member is absent from home for a period equal to or less than 30 days, or for a longer period if the absence is due to health, study, vocational training or employment situations, of temporary nature, even when that absence started before the date of the allowance application submission.

Equivalence to affinity

The family relationship resulting from a de facto relationship for more than two years is considered equivalent to affinity.

Persons who are in any of the following situations are not considered as household members:

• A person bound by a contractual relationship, such as subletting and lodging that implies common residence or housing;
• A person that is living in the same household because he/she is working for a household member.
• A person who is staying in the house for a short time.
• A person living in the household against his/her will because of physical or psychological coercion or other conduct undermining his/her individual self-determination.

Income

In order to assess compliance with the means-testing condition, the following income categories identified from 1 to 7 are taken into account.

To calculate the Primary Informal Carer Allowance, the following income categories identified from 2 to 7 are taken into account.

1. Employment income

Note 1: Employment income earned by young student-workers aged up to 27, whose annual amount cannot exceed 14 times the guaranteed minimum monthly wage (RMMG) - Article 6(2)(b) of Decree-Law no. 70/2010.

Note 2: Income earned by young people working during school holidays is not taken into account, in accordance with article 83-A et seq. of Law no. 110/2009 of 16 September - Code of Contributory Schemes of the Social Security Welfare System.

2. Business and professional income

Income from self-employed activities, calculated according to the coefficients laid down in the Code of Contributory Schemes of the Social Security Welfare System, corresponding to:

• 70% of the total value of services provided in the calendar year immediately preceding the date when the contribution base is set, or
• 20% of income earned from the production and sale of goods in the calendar year immediately preceding the date when the contribution base is set, as well as services provided in the context of hotel and similar activities, catering and beverages, which are declared as such for tax purposes
• the taxable profit amount, whenever this is lower than the amount resulting from the above criteria, if the self-employed person is covered by the organised accounting scheme.

Income excluded from Personal Income taxation resulting from the production of electricity through small production units is not taken into account for the determination of the relevant income of self-employed persons.

3. Capital income

Income defined in Article 5 of the Income Tax Code for Natural Persons, namely interest on deposits in bank accounts, dividends from shares or income from other financial assets.

If the total income amount is lower than 5% of the value of credits deposited in bank accounts and other securities held by the applicant or any household member on 31 December of the relevant year, the amount considered is the one resulting from the application of that percentage.

The capital income considered refers to the calendar year prior to the date of the application submission, provided that the respective supporting documents are available and, if not, this income shall concern the year immediately prior to that, and must be broken down in months.

4. Property income

Income defined in Article 8 of the Income Tax Code for Natural Persons, namely: rents from rural, urban and mixed buildings, paid or made available to the respective owners; amounts resulting from the transfer of the use of the building or part of it and the services related to that transfer; the amount earned by the sublessor resulting from the difference between the rent received from the subtenant and that paid by the landlord; amounts resulting from the transfer of use of common parts of buildings.

If these assets do not generate rents, or if they do, but at a value lower than 5% of the highest value shown in the updated land book, or in the land registry issued by the competent tax services, or in the document used to title the respective acquisition, as at 31 December of the relevant year, that value must be taken into account.

Exception to this rule: if the property is intended for the permanent residence of the applicant and his/her household members and provided that its asset value is equal to or lower than 450 times the Social Support Index (IAS - Indexante dos Apoios Sociais) value, which corresponds to EUR 235.125,00 (450 x EUR 522.50).

If the asset value exceeds 450 times the IAS value, the value equal to 5% of the value exceeding that limit is considered income.

The property income considered refers to the calendar year prior to the date of the application submission, provided that the respective supporting documents are available and, if not, this income shall concern the year immediately prior to that, and must be broken down in months.

5. Pensions

Value of pensions, namely old-age, invalidity, survivor's, retirement or other pensions of a similar nature; temporary or life annuities; benefits from insurance companies or pension funds and maintenance payments.

The pension income considered refers to the second month prior to the date of the application submission and the arrears from previous months are not taken into account.

The twelfths of the holiday pay and Christmas bonus of the pension amount are also taken into account.

6. Social benefits

All sickness, unemployment, parental and adoption benefits.

The social benefits income considered refers to the second month prior to the date of the application submission and the arrears from previous months are not taken into account.

7. Housing support

This support includes all residence allowances, rent allowances, and all public support within the scope of social housing on a regular basis, including social rent and supported rent.

For the purposes of household income calculation, the value of public support for social housing is EUR 46,36.

This amount is taken into account on a staggered basis according to the year in which the benefit was granted, as follows:

• One third in the 1st year (EUR 15,45)
• Two thirds in the 2nd year (EUR 30,91)
• The total amount of housing support from the 3rd year onwards (EUR 46,36)

This staggering also applies in situations where the person concerned receives public support within the scope of social housing after the Primary Informal Carer Allowance has been granted. In this case, the year taken into account is the one in which the housing support has been granted.