Lack of IBAN Blocked Income Benefit for 20,000 People

About 20,000 people eligible for income support did not receive the amount they would have been entitled to this Monday because their IBAN was not updated, according to the Department of Housing.

“About 20,000 beneficiaries did not update their IBAN and did not receive [o apoio] for this reason,” he told Lusa, an official source at the Department of Housing, in response, warning of the need for people to have this bank identification number with both Revenue and Customs (AT) and Social Security.

During the day, complaints from several people who believe they are eligible for support, believing they qualify but have not been paid.

Among the reported situations are also those who complain about not being able to contact AT, Social Security or the Institute for Urban Housing Rehabilitation (IHRU) to find out if they were considered or excluded and for what reason.

“Many taxpayers who meet the requirements of the Rent Support Decree-Law were not expected to receive the same,” says one tenant who reported his case to Lusa, adding that he could not get a response from services for such an exemption. .

“Social Security says it is only responsible for the payment, AT says it only provided the amounts, and IHRU is not responding to any contact. The line is out of service,” says the tenant, who, according to her records, rents €191 per month of support, indicating that he has made “more than 60” phone contact attempts in recent days.

In one of the other cases that came to Lusa, there is a person who says that he was informed last Friday that he was not on the list of supporters to be processed that Monday, and found this answer strange due to the fact that he is eligible (and received today) a €90 emergency support targeting the most vulnerable families, but not income.

In the same email, she mentions that she is unemployed and eligible for the social electricity tariff, which entitles her to a support of 90 euros, and that she has a lease agreement since 2014.

The Department of Housing announced on Monday morning in a statement that the monthly income support subsidy, effective since May, is being paid out today to approximately 150,000 families, retroactive to January.

It is a “monthly income support subsidy promoted by the Institute of Housing and Urban Rehabilitation, which is effective from May and is retroactive to January.”

Most families will receive support “for the first time, thus joining the social security recipients who already received this support in May.”

The government reminds that “aid of less than 20 euros per month is paid only once every six months.”

Support “among the more than 185,000 families eligible for this measure could be as high as €200 per month, with an average of around €100,” the statement said.

This measure is part of the government’s “More Housing” program to combat the crisis in this sector and will cost around 240 million euros per year.

The government is once again warning of the need for beneficiaries to update their IBAN with both the tax authority and Social Security Direct, as this assistance is paid exclusively by bank transfer.