Portugal Publishes the Rulebook for Its Single Social Benefit: 15 Hours of Community Work a Week, 20 From the Third Renewal

The rulebook for Portugal's biggest welfare reform in two decades is now published. Portaria n.º 394/2026/1, in the Diario da Republica of 27 August, sets out how the prestacao social unica (PSU) will actually run, filling in the operational detail that Decreto-Lei n.º 166/2026 of 13 August left to regulation. The benefit itself takes effect on 31 December 2026.

The PSU folds thirteen existing non-contributory supports into one payment. Among them are the rendimento social de insercao, the social unemployment subsidy, the social old-age and invalidity pensions, the widowhood and orphanhood pensions, the extraordinary solidarity supplement, and a family of social parental and clinical-risk subsidies. One application, one means test, one monthly transfer.

The number that sets everything else

The PSU reference value is 50 percent of the indexante dos apoios sociais, which stands at 537.13 euros this year. That puts the reference figure at about 268.57 euros a month, weighted across the household, with the total capped at six times the IAS. Movable assets may not exceed 60 times the IAS, and financial assets only count once they exceed 15 times it. The family's permanent home is excluded unless its rateable value passes 450 times the IAS, at which point 5 percent of the excess counts as income.

One condition catches people out: if you left a job voluntarily, a year must pass between the end of the contract and the application, unless you hold recognised victim-of-domestic-violence status.

Fifteen hours, then twenty

The part drawing attention is the community-work requirement. Working-age recipients must be available for solidarity activities capped at 15 hours a week and 8 hours a day. The new portaria implements article 33 of the decree-law: from the third annual renewal, that weekly availability rises by five hours, taking the ceiling to 20. Households with an 18 to 25 year old who is neither working nor exempt face an additional availability requirement of their own.

For each 20 hours of solidarity activity actually performed, the recipient receives one senha de participacao worth 2.5 percent of the IAS, which works out at 13.43 euros. The promoting body, coordinated by the local camara municipal, must provide transport or reimburse it, provide a meal or its cash equivalent where the activity runs four hours or more in a day, and carry personal accident insurance for the whole period.

Absence is excusable for illness or accident, indispensable care of a household member, parental responsibilities, unavoidable legal or judicial obligations, bereavement within defined degrees of kinship, and, notably, steps taken to find work. Unexcused absences are logged by the promoter, reported to the case manager, and passed to Seguranca Social for assessment.

What this means for expats

• If you receive RSI today: your benefit is one of the thirteen being absorbed. Read our RSI guide for the outgoing rules, and expect a transition through the ordinary renewal cycle rather than a fresh application.
• Residence requirement: the PSU requires residence in national territory, and the residency bar for non-EU newcomers was doubled to two years during the parliamentary passage.
• Disability supports are separate: the prestacao social para a inclusao is not one of the thirteen, and the disability and dependency supports sit outside the PSU ceiling.
• Digital by default: attribution, renewal, revision and inspection run through digital channels, with income verified automatically at award and at each annual renewal.

The design bet is that a single benefit with automated income checks is cheaper to run and harder to game, which is the same logic behind the cross-border data matching that saved Seguranca Social 76.5 million euros in eight months. The escalating hours are the political half of the bargain. Four years in, a recipient of working age is expected to give up half a working week to keep the payment, compensated at 13.43 euros for each such week.