Slovakia has one of the most generous benefit systems in the family area in the world. (source: TASR)
Slovakia has one of the most generous benefit systems regarding family in the world, in relation to the average wage. Parents with two children, who both earn an average wage, will receive €91,392 from the state during the first five years of the first child. This amounts to €1,395 per month, which is more than the current net average salary of a working person. The family thus gains more than if the woman has no children and continues to work. Radovan Ďurana, analyst with the economic think tank INESS, writes this in response to the proposal of OĽaNO leader Igor Matovič to reduce the tax burden on mothers and young people as well as increase the tax bonus.
INESS points out that state expenditures falling under family policy have dramatically increased recently. This year alone, family policy expenses have increased by a third, an increase of almost €1 billion to €2.7 billion. This is more than spending on primary and secondary schools combined.
“We therefore consider further increases to be irresponsible in view of Slovakia’s huge public finance deficit,” Ďurana writes.
To give the public an idea of how generous the family policy already is today, INESS has updated its young family model to quantify how much a family would receive in public funds under the current set-up.
For the quantification model, it chose a family in which the parents earn the average wage and have two children. They have calculated all the benefits and transfers that this family will receive until the fifth birthday of the first child between 2022 and 2027.
