The Azores Create a Legal Right to a Personal Assistant for Disabled People, but No One Gets One Until a Regional Budget Pays for It

Disabled people in the Azores have a legal right to apply for a personal assistant: a paid, trained worker who helps them wash, eat, get to work or school, run a home and take part in community life, under a plan they draw up themselves. Decreto Legislativo Regional n.º 18/2026/A, published in the Diário da República (the official gazette) on 21 October, creates the Modelo de Apoio à Vida Independente (Independent Living Support Model, MAVI) in the region and took effect on 22 October.

No one will get an assistant straight away. Under its final article, every rule that costs money only takes effect once a regional budget "that provides a dedicated allocation" comes into force, and the Regional Government has 90 days to write the detailed regulations: how the centres that run the scheme are accredited, the training, the eligibility criteria and the funding.

Who can apply

The decree covers people who have lived in the Azores for more than six months and are aged 14 or over, in either of two groups:

• people with a disability or incapacity of 60 percent or more, proven by an Atestado Médico de Incapacidade Multiúsos (multi-purpose disability certificate) or an Armed Forces disability card;
• people with an intellectual disability, a mental illness or autism who need support to live independently, without a minimum percentage.

The decree sets no nationality condition, only the six months' residence, so immigrants living in the Azores qualify on the same terms. Eligibility is assessed case by case. For a child aged 14 to 17, the plan is agreed with the parents and, where relevant, the school, with the young person taking a growing part in it. Our guide to the multi-purpose disability certificate explains how the 60 percent assessment works.

How it would work

The person, or their legal representative, applies to a Centro de Apoio à Vida Independente (Independent Living Support Centre, CAVI). Only non-profit organisations with proven experience in disability or social inclusion can be accredited as centres, by the regional directorate for inclusion and social action. Together with the centre's staff, the person writes a Plano Individual de Assistência Pessoal (Individual Personal Assistance Plan), in which they decide what help they want, when and where. The decree sets:

• A reference of 40 hours a week per person, which can be exceeded in exceptional, justified cases, subject to technical approval and the money being available;
• a wide range of help: personal care, eating and health upkeep, housework, getting about, communication, support at work, in training, at school or university, in culture, sport and leisure, in looking for a job, and in making decisions (without replacing legal representation under the Civil Code);
• in-person help as the rule: remote assistance is allowed only for suitable tasks and never for hygiene, eating, mobility or safety;
• every island covered, including rural areas and isolated communities, with possible extra pay, travel allowances and help with rent to recruit assistants on the islands where they are hardest to find;
• a say over the assistant: the person takes part in interviews, can propose who is hired and can ask for a replacement if trust breaks down.

Plans can be changed whenever the person's needs change, decisions must be given in writing with reasons, and the person can complain or appeal through the ordinary administrative routes.

What it does not combine with

The scheme replaces, rather than adds to, some existing help. It cannot be combined, for the same activities, with:

• the subsídio por assistência de terceira pessoa (third-party care allowance) or the complemento por dependência (dependency supplement);
• a place in an occupational activity centre or a residential home;
• family foster care for older and disabled adults;
• home-care services for the same tasks, or any other social support paid for the same activities.

The assistants

The decree recognises personal assistant as a job category. Assistants must be 18 or over and have completed compulsory schooling, and are hired by the centre on an employment contract under the Labour Code; freelance arrangements are allowed only as a justified, temporary exception. Each must complete 50 hours of initial training before starting, unless they already hold the national qualification or the certificate from the mainland scheme. A person's spouse or partner, close relatives up to the fourth degree and, except where the centre justifies it, anyone living in the same household cannot be their assistant.

Centres are paid for the hours of assistance actually delivered, on quarterly activity reports, from the regional budget, with national or EU money possible. Funding can also cover transport and adaptations or equipment set out in the plan. A Conselho Consultivo para a Vida Independente (Advisory Council for Independent Living), including disabled people's organisations, meets every three months, and the scheme is to be evaluated by an independent body every two years.

When the money comes

The Legislative Assembly of the Azores approved the decree unanimously in Horta on 16 September, and the Representative of the Republic signed it on 16 October. It began as a bill from Chega; a rival bill from the Bloco de Esquerda (Left Bloc) was rejected the same day. The clause tying the scheme's costs to a future budget was added by an amendment from the governing PSD, CDS-PP and PPM.

In the debate, according to the assembly's official record (Diário da Sessão n.º 100), Mónica Seidi, the Regional Secretary for Health and Social Security, said the Government had "taken care to enter an allocation of 200,000 euros in next year's investment plan". The PS warned that a budget "that provides a dedicated allocation" could mean 2028 or 2029, and the PSD replied that there "will be money in the 2027 budget". The 2027 regional plan and budget are due before the assembly in November; their text had not been published when we checked, so that allocation cannot yet be confirmed.

How far 200,000 euros would go is a question the Government raised itself. At a committee hearing on 29 July, recorded in the Social Affairs Committee's report of 10 September, Seidi said:

• the Azores Social Security Institute had identified 4,802 people aged over 14 with a disability of 60 percent or more, the potential pool for the scheme;
• a pilot for five people, three of whom would need help around the clock, would need at least nine assistants, at a cost of about 212,000 euros a year before the centre's own running costs;
• twenty people would need about 40 assistants and three senior staff, an investment of close to one million euros;
• neither bill came with a cost estimate, and the Government preferred to start with a pilot.

The Centro de Vida Autónoma dos Açores (Azores Independent Living Centre), a disabled people's organisation, told the committee it knew of about twenty people interested.

What happens next

Two steps now decide when the first assistants start: the Regional Government's regulations, due within 90 days, which will set the accreditation rules, the training and the funding model, and a regional budget that funds the scheme. Anyone in the Azores who wants to take part will apply through an accredited centre once one exists; no centre can be accredited under the new decree until those rules exist.

On the mainland, a programme of the same name was created by Decreto-Lei n.º 129/2017 as a set of pilot projects. The Azores decree recognises that scheme's training certificate, so an assistant trained under it can work in the region without repeating the course. Portugal's independent disability rights monitor said this week that the national 2027 budget lacks identifiable money for disability measures; we reported its 15 points on 20 October.