In a letter dated January 16, 2026, in which he apologizes for the lack of speed in responding more than 10 months later, the Secretary of State completely ignores Maria Lúcia Amaral’s recommendation on the payment of late payment interestlimiting itself to ensuring that it has, together with the IHRU, “made the most diverse efforts to recover delays in payment of support” and that by the date of the letter (January 2026) “Payments were made for almost all applications, with support being made available to 4721 beneficiaries, with only 242 applications still in the clarification phase”.
The Government, the second of the Democratic Alliance since the March 2024 legislative elections — for which presented a program in which he considered the definitive freezing of rents, the responsibility of the previous executive, as a “wrong measure”, promising to put an end to itan intention that he would later renege on in October 2024 —, he also says he is “aware of the flaws highlighted in the design of the measure and in the digital processing of the respective applications” and strives to “improve communication with candidates and beneficiaries of the measure”, namely through the “strengthening” of “face-to-face assistance (…) with a view to providing clarifications and assistance in the preparation and presentation of applications, with and without prior scheduling”.
Promised “streamline” never happened
This is a novelty (the only one), proven by DN on the Housing Portal: there, in the “Compensation to owners” section, the answer to the question “how is the compensation request formalized” now reads: “Whenever the candidate has any difficulty or problem in submitting the application using the form online You must go to the IHRU facilities in person to have the necessary help provided.” But this face-to-face service, whose date of establishment is not mentioned, will only be, as stated in the letter from the State Department of Housing, available in Lisbon and Porto, without mention of timetables.
Furthermore, contrary to what was announced by the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing, Miguel Pinto Luz, in November 2024 in parliament, There was no change in a process that he himself described as “time-consuming, cumbersome and bureaucratic” and assured that he intended to “speed it up”.
At the time, the governor blamed the Federal Revenue Service for the reason for the delays: “The process is bottlenecking at the Revenue Service [referia-se ao facto de haver documentos exigidos que dependem da AT e que esta, como o DN alertou logo em junho de 2024, não facultava]in the bureaucracy that is difficult for some landlords to access.” And he added: “We are changing the validation process, even considering the exclusion of the TA issue. We are speeding up, as proposed by the IHRU, this entire process.”
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