Informal caregiver status in Portugal: rights, the support allowance and how to apply in 2026

What the Informal Caregiver Status is

In Portugal, hundreds of thousands of people care every day for a dependent family member: a parent with Alzheimer's, a child with a disability, a bedridden spouse. Law 100/2019 created the Informal Caregiver Status (Estatuto do Cuidador Informal) to recognise that role and attach concrete rights to it: training, follow-up, respite periods, employment rights and, for the main caregiver, a monthly cash benefit².

The status distinguishes two roles¹:

The distinction matters mostly because of the money: only the main caregiver can receive the support allowance, computed in the informal caregiver allowance calculator.

Who can be an informal caregiver

The caregiver's conditions are the same in both statuses¹:

• be 18 or older and live in Portugal (or an equivalent situation);
• be a relative up to the 4th degree of the cared person (children, parents, grandparents, grandchildren, siblings, uncles and aunts, cousins) or, if not a relative, live in the same home with the same fiscal address;
• be in adequate physical and health condition to provide the care;
• not receive an absolute invalidity pension or dependency benefits.

The main caregiver adds the two requirements that define the role: caring permanently and receiving no pay, neither from professional activity nor for the care provided; they also cannot be receiving unemployment benefit. Whoever starts working after the recognition can be reclassified as non-principal.

The cared person's conditions

The status is only recognised if the cared person¹:

• is in a situation of dependency and needs permanent care (long-lasting or temporary, for example during a recovery);
• receives, as a rule, the dependency supplement of the 2nd degree or the third-person assistance subsidy; in temporary dependency the 1st degree can suffice, with an assessment by the attending doctor or the incapacity verification services;
• does not live in an institution, social or health, public or private;
• gives their consent, or their legal representative's when they are not in full command of their faculties.

The support allowance: how much you receive in 2026

The main informal caregiver's support allowance runs two sums in the order the law sets, with the values fixed by Ordinance 100/2022 as amended by Ordinance 291/2024/1³ and the 2026 IAS (€537.13)⁴.

First, the means test. Add the gross monthly income of the whole household, including the cared person but leaving dependency benefits out, and divide by the weighting: 1 for the applicant, 0.7 for each other adult, 0.5 for each minor. The result, the reference income, cannot exceed €698.27 (1.3 times the IAS)¹.

Then, the amount. From the reference value of €590.84 (1.1 times the IAS), deduct the caregiver's own income and the cared person's dependency benefit (the lowest one, if there is more than one cared person). The RSI, the supplement of the inclusion benefit and the CSI never enter the deduction¹.

An example with the numbers from the calculator: Maria cares for her son João, a minor who receives the 1st-degree dependency supplement (€131.20). They live alone together and Maria has €200 of own income. The weighting is 1.5, the reference income is €133.33 (within the limit) and the allowance is €590.84 − €200 − €131.20 = €259.64 per month¹.

The voluntary social insurance increment

While caring, the main caregiver makes no Social Security contributions and the contribution record stalls. To compensate, the law created a special rate in the voluntary social insurance: 21.4% on the IAS, that is, €114.95 per month in 2026. Whoever enrols and pays receives the support allowance increased by €57.48, half the contribution¹. In Maria's example, the allowance would rise from €259.64 to €317.12 per month, and every month paid would count towards the future old-age, invalidity and survivor pensions.

What the allowance can be combined with

The support allowance can be combined with the social insertion income, the inclusion benefit, the survivor's pension, the prenatal family allowance and, under tight conditions, with early old-age pensions¹.

It cannot be combined with unemployment benefits, the normal old-age pension, the absolute invalidity pension, the solidarity supplement for the elderly or study grants. And since 2026 the allowance no longer counts as income for other social benefits, an improvement for those receiving combinable support¹.

The status's other rights

The allowance is the most visible support, but the status grants more¹:

• caregiver respite: periods in which the cared person is taken in (in inpatient care or social responses) so the caregiver can rest;
• training and follow-up by the health services and Social Security;
• employment rights for the non-principal caregiver who works: justified absences, an annual 5-working-day assistance leave, part-time work for up to 4 years, flexible hours and protection against dismissal;
• working-student status for caregivers who study, plus skills recognition (RVCC) and IEFP support to return to work when the care ends.

How to apply for the recognition

The application is made online, at Segurança Social Direta, or at a Social Security desk, with the cared person's consent (signed on the form) and proof of the conditions. The right to the status starts on the date the application is complete; up to three non-principal caregivers can be recognised per cared person, but only one main caregiver¹. In the Azores and Madeira, caregiver support has its own schemes and desks.

Before applying, run the numbers: the informal caregiver allowance calculator shows in seconds whether the household passes the means test, how much you would receive per month and what changes with the voluntary social insurance increment.