Parliament's Budget Office Prices Six Months of Fully Paid Parental Leave at 230 Million Euros a Year, Half the Government's Figure

Extending Portugal's initial parental leave to six months on full pay would cost Social Security about 230 million euros a year, according to the Unidade Técnica de Apoio Orçamental (Technical Budget Support Unit, UTAO), the budget office that works for Parliament. That is roughly half the 445.2 million euros the Government has put on the same bill, and about twice the 115.9 million calculated by the Instituto da Segurança Social (Social Security Institute, ISS).

The report, UTAO n.º 15/2026, went to MPs on Tuesday at the request of the committee handling the bill. According to Jornal de Negócios, the Socialists sought it because of the gap between the official estimates, and a committee meeting planned for Wednesday has been postponed.

What the bill changes

Today a working parent can take 120 days at 100 percent of their reference pay, 150 days at 80 percent (or at 100 percent if the parents share it), or 180 days with sharing at 83 percent. The citizens' bill, Projeto de Lei 176/XVII, would pay 180 days at 100 percent however the leave is split, and up to 210 days at 100 percent if each parent takes at least 30 consecutive days on their own. It would also double the father's compulsory leave from 28 to 56 days.

The bill is still being considered article by article, with amendments from seven parties (we covered the fight over sharing and single parents in September).

Why the Government's number is so much higher

The ISS figure and the UTAO's both take the benefits paid in 2025, to the same people, and add the extra days the bill creates; the UTAO's is higher because it works leave type by leave type, includes the father's leave and corrects a slip in the ISS sums. The Government's 445.2 million goes further. It starts from a 2027 budget grown by 14 percent, and assumes that families all move to the best-paid shared option once it exists.

That second assumption is the one the UTAO questions, and it tests it against Social Security's own data. Where sharing already pays the same as not sharing (the 120-day option), only 4.3 percent of parents receiving the initial parental benefit chose to share in 2025. Where sharing pays 100 percent against 80 percent (the 150-day option), 29.3 percent did. Sharing depends on jobs and habits that a new law does not change, so the 445.2 million is a ceiling, not a central estimate, the report says.

The 14 percent growth rate is less contentious. Spending on parental benefits rose 13.4 percent in January to April 2026, close to the Government's figure, although well above the 5.3 to 5.4 percent wage growth the Finance Ministry assumes. Applying those rates lifts the UTAO's 230 million to 242 million or 261 million. Births are not the driver: about 45,900 people a year received the initial parental benefit from 2021 to 2025.

What each party's version would cost

Neither the Government nor the ISS costed the amendments, so the UTAO did, on the same basis and with no switching between options. The PSD's would add about 33 million euros a year, the PS's 132 million and the Iniciativa Liberal's 202 million. Chega's version stays close to the original bill and to its cost. The Bloco de Esquerda's would add 252 million, the PCP's 286 million and Livre's 290 million. The UTAO says the PCP figure is the least reliable, because that proposal redesigns the whole scheme.

Of the 120 amendments filed, the UTAO did not cost those on single-parent families, premature or multiple births, or adoption, nor could it isolate a longer leave reserved for the mother.

Its closing advice is that the committee ask the Government how much of its 445.2 million comes from growth and how much from parents changing option. Until then, the UTAO says, the figures are ranges for a political decision, not fixed prices.

For the rules that apply today, see our guide to child benefits and parental leave in Portugal.