Over the last four years Lagoa Council has channelled more than 300 thousand euros to fund incentives to encourage families to have more children. The “birth support” measures started to be applied in the municipality back in 2016, the year in which 35 families received money from the Council to have kids.
During the year 2019 this number rose to a hundred families. In a press release sent to newsrooms, Lagoa Council explains that “in order to access the two thousand euros allocated by the Municipality to each child registered as a Lagoa resident, parents must have been resident in the municipality for more than two continuous years, at the date of birth, and registered for at least a year”
In the total of four years (2016-2019), according to the municipality, 315 families have been supported with this incentive aimed at “the increase of birth rates in the municipality of Lagoa, but also the settlement of the population and the improvement of their living standards” . Adoption cases are also covered by this funding, regardless of age.
The Council also stresses that "they may also be eligible for complementary support for medical treatments for postpartum depression, or even fertility for those who cannot generate a child without medical support". In a review of the birth incentives program, done by the municipal executive at the end of 2019, the municipality verified that the support has already amounted to just over 322 thousand euros sinces measures were implemented, with «it being expected that in the current year the value will continue to grow”.
The Council have stated that they consider this as "a strategic measure that stands out among a wider set of social action policies of proximity". With the investment in family incentive policies, the Municipality of Lagoa “intends to help counter the demographic trend of decreasing birth rates, registered throughout the country, but which in this Algarve territory takes on a significant expression”.
