Costa believes it is important that the “policy” of increasing income is not violated

This Friday the Prime Minister felt it was important that the “policy” of raising incomes was not compromised, arguing that creating more and better jobs was “essential” to ensure the sustainability of social security.

Speaking at the Institute of Social Security Informatics in Oeiras, António Costa said that only this Thursday he heard “someone say that to guarantee the sustainability of social security it is necessary for pensioners to earn less.”

“Over these eight years, it has become clear that if social security is to be sustainable, it is important that economic policy continues to have a very clear priority: jobs, jobs, jobs and raising overall income,” he said.

The chief executive stressed that this Friday the government will be able to “spend another 12 billion euros on social benefits”, saying “with peace of mind that the sustainability of social security has increased for another 40 years” and “it is not in danger of bankruptcy”.

“We have significantly increased its resilience, and why? Because the more people work, the more people contribute. “With higher wages, contributions are higher, and the famous increase in the tax burden they present as a bogeyman means there are fewer unemployed people and more people who earn better money,” he said.

Costa stressed that the social security system this Friday is “more robust to guarantee its sustainability for years to come,” which will allow the Portuguese to end “2023 calmly, with security and confidence in the future of social security.”

“The fundamental thing is that policy stays the same so that we can have better and better jobs, greater social security contributions, stronger social security, so that we can respond to both unforeseen events such as pandemics and inflation. crises, or the normality and tranquility of family life,” he said.

Costa spoke on the occasion of the unveiling this Thursday by the President of the Republic of the state budget for 2024, emphasizing that next year will be the one “when there will be a greater increase in support for families” with an increase in social benefits.” increasingly above the inflation rate,” and emphasized that over the past eight years, “the poverty threshold has increased by 152 euros.”

“So we will have to continue this trajectory, because we need an income that continues to rise, so that the median rises, so that the poverty line also rises,” he stressed, adding that, as for wage increases, “a 5% benchmark” established in the medium-term agreement to improve revenues, ensures that they will continue to grow.

Before this speech, Costa visited the facilities of the Social Security IT Institute, which, among other services, ensures the processing of social benefits and pensions and receives funding under the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) of approximately 200 million euros, of which 58.4 have already been implemented.

The investment aims to ensure the digital modernization of the social security system, with the launch of automatic processing of family benefits in the first quarter of 2024, as well as antenatal benefits and a “social rights simulator” within the year.

In his speech, Costa used the example of this institution to respond to those who say that “the PDP devotes an important part of its resources to investments in public administration,” countering that these investments “are really aimed at making life easier for citizens and companies.” “.

“Eliminating the monthly obligation to declare contributions will save companies thousands of hours of work. Is this an investment made here? Yes. But the beneficiaries are the companies,” he said.