Continuing along the lines inaugurated in the previous year, the Ombudsman’s 2023 Activities Report, delivered today to the Portuguese Parliament, gives particular prominence to problems that, across the board and repeatedly, jeopardise the good provision of public services to a wide range of citizens. Following the emphasis given in the previous report to slowness, lack of coordination between services and…

Difficulties related to the service provided by public services have long been the subject of the Ombudsman’s attention. However, the pandemic of 2020 and 2021 and the need to confine the population have profoundly changed existing practices, and, after the health emergency, many doubts and complaints have arisen about how the channels between public services and citizens are being resumed.…

The inability of the State to respond in reasonable time, the deficient articulation between services which hinders decisions and not infrequently generates conflicting decisions, and the unclear communication with interested parties are among the problems that are found across the board in the Public Administration and which seriously compromise the quality of public services. This finding, which stems from very…

The Ombudsman sent a new recommendation to the Minister of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security highlighting the urgency of guaranteeing timely access to the Social Insertion Benefit (PSI) by persons with disabilities. The new recommendation arises from the continuous receipt of complaints that show that the effectiveness of the PSI is not guaranteed, primarily as a result of the delay…

In 2021, a record volume of 12,219 new cases were processed, as a result of a 6% annual increase in the number of complaints admitted. Based on 2017, the beginning of the first mandate of the current Ombudsman, Maria Lúcia Amaral, the accumulated growth in the number of new complaints processed is 57%. A new high of 21 259 requests…

In 2020, activity indicators were once again the highest in the history of the Ombudsman, an independent State body created in 1975 to defend people who feel aggrieved by unfair or illegal acts or omissions of the administration or other public powers or who see their fundamental rights violated. The Ombudsman dealt with a record 11,557 new cases, as a…

The Ombudsman once again addressed the President of the Institute of Social Security (ISS) to request that he proceed with the payment to companies of requests for extraordinary support for the progressive resumption of activity, formulated since December, which are still pending confirmation by the Tax and Customs Authority (AT) of the requirement related to the drop in invoicing. After…