Secretaria-Geral do Ministério do Trabalho, Solidariedade e Segurança Social

The Social Security started a pilot project in which it will promote remote service by videoconferencing by appointment. The objective is to channel citizens and companies to this service channel who want to perform a face-to-face service, but who are in places where these appointments are more time-consuming, putting them in contact with services with greater responsiveness and less time for appointment. Currently, the average waiting time at national level between appointment and attendance is nine days. However, in some urban centres, this deadline is longer. At the same time, in some places in the country, Social Security services can guarantee an appointment in less than three days. To ensure a more efficient management of resources, Social Security started with a pilot project in which it puts nine helpdesks of four District Centres in contact, through videoconferencing with beneficiaries located in areas where care is not guaranteed in a timely manner, through the MS Teams platform. In this modality, care can be guaranteed even when Social Security employees are teleworking. In this initial phase, the referral to the remote service by videoconference will be ensured only through the Social Security Line, which may propose this alternative when a quick face-to-face service is not available. Services dedicated to citizens and companies will be available, such as contributions or legal protection, and also in the area of international relations, such as the European Health Insurance Card, which can be requested through this new modality of care. After evaluating this new service channel, Social Security intends to expand the number of branches to be attended by videoconference in the territory, increasing its responsiveness, and allow more issues to be dealt with in this way. In 2020, the Social Security Line recorded nearly 3 million calls, almost half a million more than in 2019.

Source: Government Portal