This situation has been going on for a couple of days now, and it a complete mess with no answers.
The suspension of the payment of the Social Mobility Allowance led the Regional Government, through the Regional Secretariat for Tourism, Environment and Culture (SRTAC), to take a public position today on this situation that is harming the people of Madeira.
In a statement, the regional executive “demands that the various entities related to the Social Mobility Allowance urgently resolve the suspension of reimbursement payments at CTT.”
SRTAC states that “it has been monitoring the situation since the beginning, which this week has made it impossible for passengers in the Region to receive the Social Mobility Allowance (SSM)”.
The Ministry adds that “in addition to the regular contacts made and the letters sent to CTT (paying entity), letters have also been sent to the State Secretariat for Infrastructure, the Tax Authority, the General Inspectorate of Finance and the National Civil Aviation Authority”.
The Regional Secretariat emphasizes in the letters sent that it is essential to “foresee and safeguard the situation of beneficiaries whose deadline for obtaining the SSM may have ended on the days in which the suspension of payments took place”.
According to the statement, ‘Turismo’ reveals that over the last two days, the Air Mobility Support Service received several contacts from several citizens in this situation, “who, naturally, cannot be deprived of their right to SSM, for reasons that are completely beyond their control”.
“The SRTAC also regrets that several CTT stations continue to inform beneficiaries that the responsibility for clarifications regarding this situation lies with the Regional Government, through the Air Mobility Support Service, provided by this Regional Secretariat, as was verified yesterday, according to a citizen’s report, in a service provided at a CTT station in Funchal”, highlights the ministry.
The SRTAC understands that “citizens who benefit from the SSM have the right to clear information about this anomaly from CTT, but they cannot be referred to other services that have no responsibility or information about this situation, worsening the beneficiaries’ negative perception of this entire process and compromising the very image of the institutions,” it emphasizes.
The Secretariat states that it has requested that various entities urgently resolve the problem, “protecting the right to SSM for all beneficiary citizens, including those whose regulatory deadline may have been exceeded during the period in which this anomaly was recorded”.
“Internal communication must also be strengthened at the various CTT offices, to ensure that citizens benefiting from the SSM are not referred to services overseen by the Regional Government when situations are at stake outside their area of competence or responsibility,” the SRTAC further warns.