Portugal’s single social benefit: who qualifies, how much it pays and what changes

What is Portugal’s single social benefit?

It is the largest reorganisation of Portuguese social supports in many years, and it is already published.

Law 36/2026 of 27 July authorised the Government to create the single social benefit and listed in article 1(2) exactly what it would absorb². Decreto-Lei 166/2026 of 13 August implemented that authorisation and is where all the rules live¹.

Article 6 defines what it is: a monthly cash benefit of differential amount, varying with the composition and the income of the applicant or holder and their household¹. The three words that matter are monthly, differential and varying. Differential means the State pays the gap between a reference value and what the family already has, rather than a fixed amount.

The preamble states the problem the diploma sets out to solve: a legal framework marked by legislative dispersion, by a multiplicity of benefits with partly overlapping purposes and by significant differences between their regimes, and the intention to remove disincentives to work, in particular situations where rising income leads to an abrupt loss of support and perpetuates poverty traps¹. Hold on to that second phrase, because we will come back to it.

How much it pays: the base amount and equivalent adults

Article 24(1) sets the formula in one line: the base amount of the PSU equals the benefit’s reference value (VRP) multiplied by the number of equivalent adults (AE) in the household of the applicant or holder¹.

The reference value comes from article 7 and corresponds to 50 % of the social support index (IAS), subject to update by ministerial order¹. With the 2026 IAS of 537.13 €, that is 268.57 € per equivalent adult.

Equivalent adults are not a headcount. Paragraph 2 of the same article fixes the weighting:

• 1 for the applicant or holder
• 0.7 per adult
• 0.5 per minor

A couple with two minor children is therefore 1 + 0.7 + 0.5 + 0.5 = 2.7 equivalent adults, giving a base amount of 725.14 € a month. Counting four people would give 1,074.28 € and would be wrong. It is the same equivalence scale the Social Integration Income already uses, so this is the part of the scheme that does not change.

Who counts as household is in article 5: the spouse or de facto partner, adult relatives and in-laws in the direct and collateral line up to the third degree, minor relatives and in-laws, and adopted children, wards and children placed by judicial decision, provided they live in a common economy¹. Paragraph 5 has a separate rule for anyone who has reached the normal old-age pension age: in that case the household is just them and their spouse or partner.

The big change: working no longer cuts the benefit euro for euro

This is the most consequential difference from everything the PSU replaces, and it is easy to miss on a quick read of the diploma.

Article 25(1) gives the formula for the amount actually received: the monthly global amount of the PSU equals the difference between the sum of the base amount and the work incentive component (CIT), where applicable, and the total income of the applicant or holder and their household¹. In symbols, the decree-law itself writes it like this:

PSUglobal = (PSUbase + CIT) - R

Being differential, every euro of income subtracts. But article 28(2) requires a work incentive component to be added back, equal to the sum of two parts: the whole of that income up to 20 % of the IAS, plus 50 % of the part exceeding that limit¹.

Because the same income was already subtracting inside R, the net effect is a disregard. The first 20 % of the IAS of earned income, that is 107.43 € in 2026, cuts nothing at all, and above that only half counts.

Put the two sides next to each other, for the same family:

• 307.43 € of net pay a month cuts 100 € off the benefit
• 307.43 € of pension, rent or another social benefit cuts the full 307.43 €

None of the replaced benefits treated earnings this way, and this is where the preamble delivers on its promise. Note that earned income enters net: article 28(3) requires mandatory social security contributions to be deducted and article 11(2) adds income tax withheld¹.

One reading caveat, because the difference may matter later: article 28 is headed regime of the transitional work incentive component, yet article 25(1) calls it simply the work incentive component, and nowhere in the decree-law is a date fixed on which it ends.

The access threshold creates a cliff, despite what the preamble says

This is the part of the scheme that deserves the most attention, and we have not seen it discussed anywhere.

Article 8(1)(b) requires, for entitlement to arise, that the income of the applicant and their household be lower than the value of the PSU calculated under article 24(1)¹. Read the end of that sentence carefully: the cross-reference is to article 24(1), that is to the BASE amount, and not to the global amount of article 25. So the access threshold is the bare base amount, without the work incentive component.

For a single person that threshold is 268.57 € a month. Work out both sides:

• with 268.56 € of net pay, the benefit is still around 188 € a month
• with 268.58 €, there is no entitlement at all

Two cents of difference in pay is worth 188 € of benefit. That is precisely the abrupt loss of support the preamble says it wants to remove, and it follows from the literal reading of the access condition itself.

It is worth recording a tension inside the diploma. Article 3, which characterises the protected contingency, refers to income lower than the value of the PSU calculated under articles 24 AND 25¹, referring to both, which would support a higher threshold measured with the incentive component included. Article 8 is the operative access condition and that is the one our calculator applies, showing the threshold separately. The implementing rules foreseen in articles 32 and 59 may clarify the point, and it is worth following what they say.

There are also two limits that do not depend on income at all. Paragraphs (c) and (d) of the same provision require that neither the household’s movable assets nor its registrable movable property exceed 60 times the IAS, that is 32,227.80 € each in 2026.

Which income counts, and the income the law imputes without you receiving it

Article 10 lists what counts: income from employment, from self-employment, from capital, from property, pensions, social benefits and regular housing support¹. The reference period is the three months immediately preceding the date of the application.

Three of those lines have a feature that surprises anyone meeting it for the first time: the law can impute income to people who do not receive it.

Article 13(2) and (3) provides that where income from capital is lower than what would result from applying a certain rate to the value of deposits and other financial assets, the amount resulting from that rate is taken as the income. The rate is the 12-month Euribor observed on the third-to-last working day of December of the previous year, plus one percentage point, with a floor of 3 % nominal annual interest. Paragraph 6 limits the rule to assets that together exceed 15 times the IAS.

Article 14 does the same with property: where no rent arises from it, or the rent is below 5 % of the taxable value, that value counts as income instead. The main permanent home is excluded, unless its taxable value exceeds 450 times the IAS, in which case 5 % of the excess counts.

And article 17(2) counts as income 50 % of the difference between the reference rent and the rent paid by the beneficiary in social housing support. Two useful notes: family, disability and dependency supplements of the family protection subsystem are expressly excluded from the income counted (article 16(1)), and for victims of domestic violence with recognised status, the earned income of the alleged aggressor in the same household is not counted (article 10(2)).

The two increases, and the unemployment one tops up to 429.70 €

Article 25(2) provides that an increase for parenthood or an increase for unemployment is added to the global amount where applicable¹. Articles 26(3) and 27(7) make clear they are not cumulative with each other or with benefits of the same nature from another scheme.

The PARENTHOOD increase, in article 26, is for someone covered by the general scheme who has no right to parental benefit because they did not meet the qualifying period. Paragraph 2 fixes its value as the difference between 80 % of the IAS and the result of applying the article 24(2) weighting of the increase’s beneficiary to the benefit’s reference value. In plain terms: 429.70 € minus the beneficiary’s weight times 268.57 €. Two different values follow:

• if the beneficiary is the applicant, the weight is 1 and the increase is 161.13 €
• if it is another adult in the household, the weight is 0.7 and it rises to 241.70 €

The UNEMPLOYMENT increase, in article 27, is for someone involuntarily unemployed with no right to unemployment benefit, either because they did not meet the qualifying period or because they exhausted it. It equals the difference between 80 % of the IAS and the global amount of the PSU under article 25(1). Do the addition and see what it actually does: the payment becomes exactly 80 % of the IAS, that is 429.70 €, whatever the starting point. Paragraph 2 removes it once the global amount already reaches that value.

Three limits matter on this second increase: it applies per household rather than per person; paragraph 4 grants it exclusively during the first six months of the PSU; and where no unemployment benefit was paid before, paragraph 3 also requires 120 days of employed work with registered earnings in the preceding 12 months.

The ceiling, the 10 € floor and what is required in return

There is a limit above and a limit below.

Above, article 25(3): the global amount plus any increase cannot exceed the maximum for the non-contributory base supports granted to the household, excluding family, disability and dependency supplements of the family protection subsystem, and that maximum corresponds to six times the IAS¹, that is 3,222.78 € in 2026. Note the scope of the sentence: the ceiling covers the household’s non-contributory base supports as a whole and not only this benefit, so other supports consume the same headroom.

Below, paragraph 5: where the monthly global amount of the PSU is below 10 €, the benefit is not granted. Note that paragraph 5 refers to the global amount, while paragraphs 2 and 3 say expressly plus any applicable increase, so the 10 € threshold appears to be tested before the increase.

The benefit also comes with obligations. Article 18 requires, as a specific condition, registration with the employment centre, acceptance of employment and training measures, and availability for social solidarity activities. Article 19 defines those activities as temporary, unpaid occupation for public bodies or the social sector, capped at 15 hours a week and 8 hours a day, with a right to transport, meals from four hours upwards and personal accident insurance. Article 20 exempts from those conditions anyone on temporary incapacity for work, holders of an early old-age or absolute invalidity pension, people with 80 % or more incapacity, those in education within the child-benefit limits, and main informal carers.

What happens to people already receiving a replaced benefit

Nothing has to be applied for, and nobody loses value through the change. Article 57 handles the conversion benefit by benefit¹:

• holders of the Social Integration Income are granted the PSU of the institution’s own motion, with a guarantee of the RSI amount they are receiving, for the current award period (paragraph 1)
• holders of the social old-age pension of the non-contributory scheme and of the extraordinary solidarity supplement transfer with a guarantee of the amount (paragraph 2)
• holders of widowhood and orphan’s pensions living in the same household transfer, with the benefit calculated under article 25 (paragraph 3)
• the holder of the social invalidity pension of the special scheme transfers with a guarantee of the amount (paragraph 4)

Paragraph 5 also guarantees continuity of the dependency supplement and the solidarity supplement for the elderly to those receiving them, and paragraph 6 requires the benefit to be paid in 14 annual instalments in the social old-age and invalidity pension cases, updated like general-scheme pensions. Article 61 adds two transitional rules: holders of an orphan’s pension who do not live with the widowhood pensioner keep it until majority, and anyone receiving a social parental or social unemployment benefit keeps the right until the end of the award period.

On the repeal side, article 62 includes Law 13/2003 of 21 May, which is the Social Integration Income act, Decreto-Lei 464/80, which created the social pension, and several articles of Decreto-Lei 220/2006 that governed the social unemployment benefit. None of this takes effect before 31 December 2026.

When it starts, and what is still missing

Article 63 is clear and carries two dates: the decree-law enters into force on the first working day after publication and takes effect on 31 December 2026¹. It has been in force since 14 August 2026, but the benefit only comes into being on the last day of the year.

Implementing rules are still missing, and they are not incidental. Article 32 leaves the proof of the access conditions and the means of proof to a regulatory diploma. Article 59 requires a ministerial order approving the procedures necessary to implement the decree-law. And there are at least three specific cross-references to ministerial orders inside the scheme: the additional solidarity hours required of household members aged 18 to 25 who are not working (article 18(2)), the participation voucher and support for the activities (article 19(5)) and the extension of the hours limit from the third renewal (article 33(5)). Article 60 also provides for an impact assessment within 24 months.

One last practical note on figures. Everything in this article uses the 2026 IAS of 537.13 €. Because the benefit only takes effect on 31 December 2026, in practice almost every payment will be made under the 2027 IAS, which is not yet known. When that value is published, every number here changes with it, and article 7 additionally allows a ministerial order to set the reference value by another route.