The annual report of the Central Office for Labour, Social Affairs and Family for the year 2013 was published on January 22, finding just a trivial increase in welfare recipients last year.
At the end of 2013, 183,500 persons in Slovakia received welfare benefits, according to the report. Compared to the end of 2012, this was a slight increase of 293 persons. The average monthly number of welfare recipients for 2013 was 184,900, which is an annual increase of 1,800 people. When taking into account other family members, those dependent on social assistance benefits last month were a total of 356,100 persons; which is 6.58 percent of the total population in Slovakia, the SITA newswire quoted the report.
The largest share in population of recipients of social welfare benefits in individual regions at the end of last year was in the districts of Revúca, Rimavská Sobota, and Rožňava. In the Revúca district, it was almost 9,700 people, which means 23.95 percent of this district’s population. In Rimavská Sobota, 18,700 people were dependent on social benefits. It was about 22.06 percent of the population of this district. In the district of Rožňava, 18.99 percent of the people lived on social benefits, equivalent to 12,000. The lowest percentage of welfare recipients live in the Bratislava districts. At the end of December, in five districts of Bratislava their share ranged from 0.52 percent to 1.01 percent of the population.
(Source: SITA)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
