28,000 families approved for Vale Eficiência vouchers for windows and heating will receive them at the end of November
Since 30 October, around 28,000 low-income families have been receiving phone calls: their applications to the Vale Eficiência programme were approved, but the vouchers were never issued. At the end of November a new platform for the programme will open, where families will confirm that they still need the voucher, receive it and redeem it with participating suppliers. This was announced by the Minister for the Environment and Energy, Maria da Graça Carvalho (Notícias ao Minuto, Jornal Económico).
The voucher is worth €1,300 plus IVA (VAT). It can be used to replace windows with class A energy-efficient ones, or to install a heat pump, a solar water heater, a boiler, solar panels or other heating and cooling equipment. In the first phase of the programme each family received one voucher; in the second, up to three. The programme is paid for by the Fundo Ambiental, the state environmental fund, with money from the PRR, the European recovery plan.
The procedure has been simplified: a "technical facilitator" (facilitador técnico), previously mandatory, is no longer needed, and compliance with the rules will be checked through random inspections.
In February 2026 the issuing of new vouchers was unexpectedly suspended and the support was postponed to 2027. Some of the programme's money went to E-Lar, another programme for low-income families, which replaces gas cookers and water heaters with electric ones.
