摘要：Aging indicators in the Portuguese population, places Portugal as one of the most aged countries in the world, being the elderly a socially vulnerable group. The vulnerability, resulting from lifelong trajectories of progressive accumulation of disadvantages, has as determinants the strong levels of loss of autonomy with advancing age, the risk of social isolation and the high risk of social exclusion and poverty, compensated by the strong impact of social transfers on income, together with the changes in Portuguese society, particularly in the morphology of families and in labor. This vulnerability framework has been adressed with the expansion of welfare public policies, but also trough informal provision, especially by families. In more recent times, we witnessed a reversal in the providencial trajectory by the Portuguese state, increasingly retreated, accentuating the family responsibility. The article presents a reflection on the relevance of informal social support in social welfare in Portugal regarding the elderly population, particularly problematizing the providential role of families in an austerity context, based on documentation and literature produced in and about the Portuguese social context.
