The Minister of Youth and Modernization, Margarida Balseiro Lopes, revealed today that 2.355 psychologist checks and 1.019 nutritionist checks had been awarded by November, mostly to women from Lisbon and Porto.
Being heard in Parliament, within the scope of the discussion on the specifics of the State Budget for 2025 (OE2025), the Minister of Youth and Modernization stated that the most recent data dates from November.
Regarding the psychologist check, Margarida Balseiro Lopes said that 3.690 checks were requested, of which 2.355 were granted, while regarding the nutritionist check, 2.781 were requested and 1.019 were granted.
According to the data presented by the minister, in 75% of cases it is girls who request the psychological check, adding that more than 50% of the checks requested were in Porto and Lisbon, followed by Coimbra, Braga and Aveiro, "with around 250 to 400 requests each".
“Most of these requests come from undergraduate students, but there are also smaller numbers of requests from masters or integrated masters students,” said Balseiro Lopes.
He added that the “numbers on nutritionist checks are almost the same”, without specifying.
In her opening speech, the minister announced that the Cuida-te program was reinforced with an additional 2 million euros, making it possible to hire more health professionals, including psychologists, nutritionists and nurses.
“Since 30 September, higher education students have had access to over 100.000 psychology consultations and over 50.000 nutrition consultations per year via the gov.pt portal. In the first month alone, we have already received over 6.500 requests, which reflects the urgency and relevance of this measure”, revealed the minister.
The introduction of psychologist checks to be distributed by Educational Institutions costs 1,5 million euros this year and 3,75 million euros next year, while nutritionist checks will cost 750 thousand euros in 2024 and 1,875 million euros in 2025.
The increase in the number of psychologists, nutritionists and nurses in the Cuida-te program has a financial impact of 675 thousand euros this year and two million euros in 2025, while the emergency plan for student accommodation has a financial impact of 15,5 million euros this year and 39,9 million euros in 2025.
In terms of support for young people, Margarida Balseiro Lopes said that including IRS Jovem, IMT, student accommodation and mental health responses, the Government allocated around 629 million euros.
The minister admitted that isolated measures do not produce any effect, but took the opportunity to show the impact of the IRS Jovem, giving as an example a young person who earns one thousand euros and who saves around 3.828 euros over a period of five years.
"This young person, in 10 years, which is the proposal in the State budget, will save 7.274 euros. If we consider, for example, a young person with an income of 1.500 euros, and I am obviously talking about gross, this young person will save 5 euros over 9.072 years, but if we take into account the 10-year horizon, which is what is included in the budget proposal for 2025, he will save around 7.545 euros", he explained.
He argued that it is a contribution “in the right direction” and added that in relation to the IMT “there were around 8.500 young people who have benefited from the measure since August”.
Regarding housing support, Margarida Balseiro Lopes highlighted the reform of the Porta 65 program, with its simplification, in which young people now have to present only three pay slips, instead of six, to apply, the removal of the exclusion factor from maximum income and the end of a prior rental contract.
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