Informal Carers’ Card. Ombudsman welcomes announcement of extended validity

The Ombudsman welcomes the intention communicated to her by the Executive Council of the Social Security Institute (ISS) to extend the validity of the informal carers ID card to one year.

The current period of validity of the card is only three months, and it is true that among the approximately 11,000 informal carers already recognised, there are those who face literacy and computer literacy problems that make it difficult to renew the card through Social Security Direct.

As it did not appear reasonable, either for the interested parties, or for the services, to need to go in person to the services every three months, the Ombudsman suggested that the validity of the card should be extended to a period of one year, as this also appeared to be more in line with the concrete situations of care, as well as with the requirement to present the card in order to access the rights consecrated in the status of informal caregiver.

Following receipt of various complaints regarding the reduced validity period of the informal carer’s card, the Directive Council of the ISS was consulted, having shown itself to be sensitive to the arguments presented by the Ombudsman. The implementation of the decision to extend the validity period is now awaited.