Portugal's Solidarity Top-Up for the Poorest Elderly Hits a Record 245,500 After Dropping the Children's-Income Test

The number of people drawing Portugal's Complemento Solidário para Idosos (Solidarity Supplement for the Elderly, CSI) — the means-tested top-up paid to the country's poorest pensioners — has climbed to 245,500, the highest figure ever recorded, according to the Ministry of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security (Ministério do Trabalho, Solidariedade e Segurança Social).

That is an increase of about 105,000 beneficiaries in just over two years, from roughly 140,000 in April 2024 to 245,500 by June 2026 — a jump of around 75%. The ministry credits the surge to a package of changes designed to widen access and lift the amounts paid, in a country where old-age poverty remains stubbornly common.

The change that opened the door

The single biggest reason more people now qualify is a reform of the condição de recursos (means test). Until recently, the income of a claimant's adult children was folded into the calculation, so a pensioner with modestly earning children could be pushed above the threshold and denied support. That family-income rule has been dropped for both new awards and reassessments, removing a barrier that critics had long called perverse.

The supplement is aimed at low-income residents of pension age — currently 66 years and nine months — who have lived in Portugal long enough to meet a six-year residence requirement. It tops a pensioner's income up toward a reference value that has itself risen sharply, from €550.70 a year in 2024 to €670 now — the equivalent of an €8,040 annual floor.

Bigger cheques, and free medicines

The payments are also growing heavier. More than half of all beneficiaries now receive over €200 a month, and one in five collects more than €300. The count of those getting at least €200 monthly nearly tripled, from 45,000 to about 132,000. Beyond the cash, the CSI unlocks a bundle of extras — most valuably, subsidised prescriptions: more than 220,000 seniors used the scheme to access free or heavily discounted medicines in 2026.

The trend continues a steady climb the supplement has shown for months. It stood at 239,771 beneficiaries in March, and the reference value is legislated to keep rising toward €870 by 2029.

What this means for expats

• Older residents on thin pensions should check eligibility: the CSI is not limited to Portuguese nationals — long-term legal residents who meet the residence and income tests can apply, and the scrapped children's-income rule means more households now clear the bar.
• The medicine subsidy can matter as much as the cash: for pensioners with chronic conditions, the free-prescription benefit attached to the CSI is often worth more than the monthly top-up itself.
• It sits alongside a wider welfare overhaul: the government is separately folding thirteen benefits into a single payment from late 2026, so the support landscape for low-income residents is shifting on several fronts at once.

A record caseload is, in one sense, good news badly disguised: it means more of Portugal's poorest older people are finally reaching help they were entitled to. It is also a reminder of how many were kept out by a rule that counted their children's wages against them.