News Details

Decree-Law No 13/2024 was published today, 19 January, establishing various measures to support Olympic, Paralympic, deaflympic and high-performance athletes after the end of their sporting career, repealing the regime currently in force and established in Decree-Law No 272/2009 of 1 October 2009.

Thus, in terms of public employment, sports practitioners who have been in the high-income regime, at levels A or B, for at least eight consecutive or interpolated years, are entitled to apply for the competition procedures for candidates with public employment links of indefinite duration to enter the services and bodies of central, regional and local administration.

In addition, a system of public employment quotas is introduced in those departments of the administration, and a quota of 5% of the total number of posts to be filled by high-performance Olympians, Paralympics, Deaflympics or Level A or B athletes must be fixed for all competition procedures for candidates with no public employment relationship of indefinite duration, in which the number of posts put out to tender is equal to or greater than 15. Where the number of places put out to tender is equal to or greater than 3 but less than 15, the contracting authority may fix a quota for one place to be filled by those athletes.

This quota system shall apply to athletes who have competed for Portugal at the summer or winter Olympic or Paralympic Games or who, being selected for such competitions, do not participate for reasons of force majeure or who have been part of the high-performance scheme, level A or B, according to the register of high-performance sports agents, for at least eight consecutive or interpolated years.

This law shall apply to tender procedures advertised after the date of its entry into force, which is 10 days after its publication.

Also in the field of employment, and as a measure to support recruitment, an employment contract of indefinite duration concluded with a sports practitioner who has been included in the high-income scheme, at levels A or B, for at least eight consecutive or interpolated years, is equated, for the purposes of contributions to the social security system, as an employment contract concluded with a young person seeking his or her first job.

In the case of Olympians, Paralympics, Deaflympics or those who have been in high-performance level A or B for at least eight consecutive or interpolated years, who have the capacity and availability for work, with minimum qualifications at the level of full secondary education, or level 3 of qualification, or who are undergoing a qualification process leading to the achievement of that level of education or qualification, are considered recipients of the measures to support the creation of enterprises of the Support Programme for Entrepreneurship and Self-Employment, for two years from the end of their career, by registration in the employment centres of the Institute for Employment and Vocational Training, I.P.

With regard to voluntary social insurance, high-income sports practitioners who benefit from grants fixed or contracted with the State and who, in compliance with the other legal conditions, are affiliated to voluntary social insurance, are entitled to assume, by the IPDJ, I.P., the costs resulting from the contributions levied on the first of the brackets of the contribution base established by the general law, with the additional costs resulting from the option for a higher tax base being borne on their own account.

If they have not yet made use of the possibility of special access to higher education, high-performance athletes for at least five consecutive or interpolated years may, within three years of the end of their career, benefit from this special access regime.

The diploma in question also grants the right to a temporary reintegration grant, at the end of their career, to high-performance sports practitioners who have integrated, in a continuous or interpolated manner, the Olympic or Paralympic project for a minimum of six years. This subsidy is borne by the Instituto Português do Desporto e Juventude, I.P. (IPDJ, I.P.) and is of an amount corresponding to the best level achieved under those projects, as calculated in the Decree-Law.

For high-performance athletes who are not covered by the legal framework of the sports employment contract and other special schemes, it is provided for the allocation, after the end of the period relating to parental social allowance, of an additional financial subsidy, to be borne by the IPDJ, I.P., in a monthly amount corresponding to the value of the Social Support Index, up to a maximum of 120 days.

For more information, the diploma can be consulted in full here.