Paying Sick Leave in Full to Cancer Patients Would Cost the State a Net 14 Million Euros, a Study for Portugal's Cancer League Estimates

Paying sickness benefit at 100 percent to people off work with cancer would cost the State a net 14 million euros or so, about 1.4 percent of everything Portugal spends on sickness benefit, according to a study for the Liga Portuguesa Contra o Cancro (LPCC, the Portuguese cancer league) released on Friday 16 October and reported by Notícias ao Minuto, citing Lusa.

What the study found

The consultancy Forvis Mazars carried out the study between June and August 2026. It estimates that Segurança Social (Social Security) now spends 483.4 million euros on sickness benefit for cancer patients, and that full pay would raise this to 517.4 million euros, an extra 34 million. Tax revenue from the extra consumer spending would rise by about 20 million euros (from 220.8 million to 240.8 million), bringing the net cost to around 14 million.

The league says cancer patients make up about 6.9 percent of people receiving sickness benefit but account for about 49 percent of what it costs, because their spells off work last longer. In the first 30 days off, it calculates, a worker on 920 euros gross a month can lose 44 percent of take-home pay, and someone on 1,694 euros up to 35 percent. Its president, Vítor Veloso, told Lusa that 14 million euros was affordable in a budget worth billions.

What the law pays now

The rates are set in Decreto-Lei n.º 28/2004, in its consolidated version, and there is no separate rate for cancer. The daily benefit is a percentage of your reference pay (your registered earnings over six months, divided by 180), and it rises the longer you are off:

• 55 percent for the first 30 days;
• 60 percent from day 31 to day 90;
• 70 percent from day 91 to day 365;
• 75 percent after a year.

The only illness with its own rate is tuberculosis: 80 or 100 percent, depending on how many dependants are in the household. Tuberculosis cover also has no time limit and no waiting days. For everyone else, employees are paid from the fourth day of sickness and the self-employed from the eleventh. A hospital stay or day surgery is paid from the first day. Benefit lasts up to 1,095 days for employees and 365 days for the self-employed, and it can never be more than the net value of the reference pay it is based on.

How a resident qualifies

The law sets the conditions by your contribution record, not by nationality, so an immigrant working in Portugal qualifies on the same terms. You need six calendar months with registered earnings, and, as an employee, 12 days of actual work recorded in the four months before the one preceding your illness. A doctor at a public, private or social-sector health provider certifies the incapacity with a certificado de incapacidade temporária (CIT, the "baixa"), which is sent to Social Security electronically. You can also self-declare up to three days of illness through the SNS digital service, twice a year. Queries can go through Social Security's new WhatsApp channel.

The politics

On 13 March 2026, parliament rejected bills from the BE, PAN, PCP, Chega, Livre and IL to raise sickness benefit for cancer patients, RTP reported. The IL's bill proposed 80 percent from the first day. The PSD and CDS-PP, the parties in government, voted against and the PS abstained. A PSD MP noted that the 2026 budget had already raised to 100 percent the allowance for parents caring for a child with cancer. The debate runs alongside other leave changes, such as the plan for longer fully paid parental leave.