The information service at the Social Security office in Faro is only offering its advice and expertise if you have made an appointment.
Starting this week, anyone that wants help or needs to untangle the muddle that Social Security seems adept at causing, needs to book in advance.
For those with internet access, the Social Security portal at www.seg-social.pt is the start of the process, or phone 300 502 502, on weekdays between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm to schedule an appointment ‘for the day and time that is most convenient.’
According to the Social Security department, this system of service by appointment, "allows citizens the convenience of being attended to at a date and time previously scheduled, without having to queue.”
Faro has not been singled out, many Social Security offices across Portugal have imposed this appointment system.
The Social Security Institute reports that its experimentation with appointment booking has been a roaring success for its customers …”with proven satisfaction from citizens, with the number of appointments increasing considerably throughout the country.”
The implementation of this new style of service, aims to "humanise and optimise services, thus reducing waiting times and increasing response.”
Many of the smaller Social Security offices in the Algarve already have this booking system (Albufeira, Lagoa, Lagos, Loulé, Olhão, Portimão, Quarteira, Silves, Tavira and Vila Real de Santo António) and the department wants to expand across the country as soon as is possible.
For those with no access to, or competence with a computer, and with a fear of telephones, the future looks complicated but help in making an appointment always can be found locally.
If the appointment system allows the department to function more effectively, reduces stress among staff and can actually cater for more people than the free-for-all system currently employed, then this is progress.
On the minus side, if further public-facing services decide to put up an appointments barrier between their staff and their customers, how long will it be before Finanças, local Councils and hospitals insist that citizens book in advance, thus distancing the State and its services from those that fund their salaries - Portugal’s taxpayers.
