It appears that foreign residents are currently unable to access the allowance via the new platform, and the postoffice are not issuing refunds, which I believe was meant to contine till end of June.
The Assembly of the Republic is debating today several legislative initiatives that challenge the requirement of a regularized contribution status for access to the social mobility subsidy (SSM) for travel between the autonomous regions and the mainland.
On the agenda for today’s plenary session are two parliamentary assessments of Decree-Law No. 1-A/2026, of January 6, which amended the rules for access to the social mobility subsidy, one presented by the Socialist Party (PS), which requested a mandatory scheduling of the initiative, and another presented by the Chega party.
Two draft bills, approved in the parliaments of the Azores and Madeira, will also be debated.
The issue concerns an amendment to the decree that defines how to calculate the value of the social mobility subsidy, which introduced as a criterion for access to reimbursement of travel expenses the “regularity of the beneficiary’s contributory and tax situation with the Social Security and the Tax and Customs Authority”.
The measure generated protests from regional executives and political parties in the Azores and Madeira, who accused the Government of the Republic of discriminating against citizens of the autonomous regions.
On the eve of this criterion being applied, the Government of the Republic decided to suspend the requirement for a regularized contribution status until the end of January, and has since extended the suspension until March 31.
The Socialist parliamentary group in the Assembly of the Republic justifies its request for review of the decree-law with the need for the Government, led by the Social Democrat Luís Montenegro, to “clarify, in a transparent and objective manner, the grounds and prior analysis that support a redesign that conditions access to the SSM (Health Service).”
The Socialist Party argues that introducing a payment condition based on regular contributions and tax obligations “reveals a profound reversal of the instrument’s purpose, conceived as a universalist mechanism for territorial correction.”
The Chega party believes that parliament should review the decree-law “in order to submit to political and legislative debate, with transparency and democratic scrutiny, the scope of the changes introduced in the new model of the social mobility subsidy and, in particular, the compatibility of its normative and regulatory design with the essential function of the subsidy as an instrument of territorial cohesion and effective equality in access to mobility.”
The draft bill presented by the Regional Government of the Azores (PSD/CDS-PP/PPM) and unanimously approved by the Azorean parliament on January 13th proposes the addition of an article ensuring that the social mobility subsidy “is paid to the passengers covered by it regardless of their contribution status with the Tax and Customs Authority and Social Security”.
The draft bill approved by the Madeira parliament on January 21st received votes in favor from the proponents (PSD and CDS-PP, the parties that make up the Regional Government), Chega and IL, with JPP voting against and PS abstaining.
The initiative proposes not only the repeal of the requirement for a regularized tax status as a condition for accessing the subsidy, but also that the passenger can pay “only the reference amount they must bear” at the time of ticket purchase and that, after a transition period, the SSM (Survival and Passenger Service) will be renamed “island resident fare”.
Created in 2015, the social mobility subsidy provides for a reimbursement to residents, equivalent residents, and students of the two autonomous regions, resulting from the difference between the eligible cost of the ticket, paid in full by the passenger, and the maximum fare borne by the resident, defined by decree.
In the Azores, the maximum fare paid by residents for round-trip travel to the mainland is 119 euros, and the maximum fare paid by students is 89 euros, with a limit of 600 euros on the eligible cost of the ticket.
For flights between Madeira and the mainland, the maximum fare for residents is 79 euros and for students 59 euros, with an eligible cost limit of 400 euros on the island of Madeira and 500 euros on Porto Santo.
For travel between the two archipelagos, the maximum fare for residents is 79 euros and for students 59 euros, with a maximum limit of 600 euros on the eligible cost of tickets.