ERPI
Published 5 November 2026, 03:36
ERPI — estrutura residencial para pessoas idosas (residential care home for older people)
A home where an older person lives, temporarily or permanently, and receives both social care and nursing care. Nursing care is what sets an ERPI apart from a day centre or home care, which do not provide it. In everyday speech such a home is still called a lar de idosos, but in the law, in the contract and in Segurança Social decisions it is an ERPI.
Where you come across it. When the question comes up of where to place an elderly parent. The word appears in care home adverts, in contracts and in social security paperwork.
Fees are not set by a price list: the family contribution (comparticipação familiar), a share of income after the family's expenses, is calculated under each institution's own internal rules, so two homes in the same town charge different amounts for the same thing. Places are scarce: according to the Carta Social for 2024, there are 7,433 services for older people across the country (day centres, ERPIs and home care together) with a capacity of 286,954 places. Each institution keeps its own waiting list; there is no national list.
Official website: cartasocial.pt/nomenclaturas-e-conceitos