The Council of Ministers has extended the transitional regime of the social mobility subsidy for the autonomous regions until March 31, 2025 to allow for the reform of the system, it was announced yesterday.
In the text of the conclusions of the meeting of the Government of the Republic led by the social democrat Luís Montenegro, it is stated that this meeting approved “a Decree-Law that extends until March 31, 2025 the transitional regime for the allocation of the social mobility subsidy”.
According to the document, the objective is to “allow the working group responsible for reforming the system for granting the social mobility subsidy in the Autonomous Regions of Madeira and the Azores to define appropriate measures”.
For Madeira, the mobility subsidy scheme that came into force in September 2015, stipulates that residents in the region pay 86 euros and students 65 euros for round-trip flights to mainland Portugal (119 euros for the Azores), an amount that may be increased if it exceeds the maximum refundable ceiling set at 400 euros.
Residents of Madeira must pay the full amount of the trip at the time of purchase and then receive the subsidy at CTT offices using documents proving the trip made. The reimbursement period is 90 days if payment is made using a credit card.
This regime was already extended by the Council of Ministers on December 27, 2023, until July 31, 2024, a period that is now ending.
On May 7th of this year, the president of the Regional Government of Madeira, the social democrat Miguel Albuquerque, defended that a review of the social mobility subsidy should be considered, determining that users only pay the face value of the trip.
For Albuquerque, “a fund must be created by the State that guarantees that all residents who want to travel will pay the face value [of the subsidised ticket].”
The Madeiran government official was speaking after the Judicial Police arrested five people and carried out 71 searches in an operation focused on the Autonomous Region of Madeira and the Lisbon metropolitan area, as part of an investigation related to fraud against the State through the social mobility subsidy.
According to the PJ statement released at the time, the house and non-house searches took place in Lisbon, Loures and Madeira, especially in the municipalities of Funchal, Santa Cruz and Câmara de Lobos, and constituted a second initiative in Operation Rota do Viajante, the investigation of which is being carried out by the Department of Investigation and Criminal Action (DIAP) of Loures.
“The investigation found that the defendants, with the aim of obtaining large illegitimate economic benefits, decided to develop a criminal scheme with the aim of obtaining illegitimate profits through the social mobility subsidy, related to hundreds of non-existent trips, with a total value of undue reimbursements exceeding half a million euros”, read the note released by the PJ.
The PJ also clarified that the plan of these people involved “recruiting residents” of Madeira, “who were provided with documents necessary to withdraw this subsidy and previously falsified, such as airline tickets, tickets and reservations, invoices and receipts”.
These people were then accompanied by members of the criminal network and presented their documentation at CTT offices on the mainland to receive reimbursement from the State.
According to the president of the Regional Government, the State should create a scheme similar to the one already implemented by the Madeiran executive for university students, through a fund that only guarantees the face payment of the subsidised ticket – 65 euros.