Social Security Opens a WhatsApp Channel for Booking Appointments and Requesting Declarations: How to Reach It
An automated WhatsApp service now lets you book a Social Security appointment, and the launch notice says you can request declarations too. Here is where to find the shortcut and what it does.
Portugal's Segurança Social (Social Security) can now be reached on WhatsApp. In a notice on its portal on Tuesday, the service said the new channel lets people book an appointment and request official declarations from their phone, "avoiding unnecessary trips and waiting times".
What the channel does
The notice describes an automated service that handles "two of the most frequent operations":
- Booking an appointment. You choose the day and time of an appointment with Social Security "in just a few steps".
- Getting official declarations. You request documents and declarations and receive them on your phone screen, with full validity, according to the notice.
The portal's help page for the channel is more cautious. It describes WhatsApp only as a way to schedule an appointment, and says this is "only the first step" of a channel that will gain further functions over time. Until the two pages agree, treat appointment booking as the part that is certain, and the declarations as something to try.
How to start a conversation
Social Security does not ask you to save a number. Instead, it points you to a shortcut:
- on the Portal da Segurança Social (Social Security portal), under Ajuda (Help), then Contactos e Canais de Atendimento (Contacts and Service Channels), then Canal WhatsApp;
- in the Social Security app, under Menu, then Fale connosco (Talk to us), then Canal do WhatsApp.
On Tuesday the portal's shortcut opened a WhatsApp chat with the Portuguese number +351 926 708 066, with a message in Portuguese already typed: "Olá, pretendo realizar um serviço na Segurança Social" ("Hello, I would like to carry out a service with Social Security"). The notice does not say whether the automated service works in any language other than Portuguese.
Social Security warned in September that fraudulent messages were circulating in its name, so it is safest to open the chat from the portal or the app rather than from a number or link someone sends you.
The other ways in
WhatsApp joins the channels Social Security already runs. The contacts page lists e-Clic, a digital channel for logging a request and following it up; the phone lines 210 545 400 and 300 502 502; video-call appointments; the Siga booking system for video calls or in-person visits; and the counters themselves. For people abroad, it keeps specialist attachés in Germany, France, Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the United States and Canada.
The launch follows a change last week that lets you give a bank, council or university direct access to your Social Security declarations instead of printing them. Self-employed workers on recibos verdes (green receipts) should also note that their quarterly declaration is due by 31 October, a task the WhatsApp channel does not cover.
