The SDP’s proposal for legislative amendments to increase the amount of child allowance was not supported by the ruling party in the Parliament on Wednesday, who emphasize that the Ministry of Demography, Family, Youth and Social Policy is working on a comprehensive and extensive proposal that is expected to come into effect on July 1, which will expand the number of child allowance recipients by about 150,000 children.
The SDP parliamentary group proposes that amendments to the Child Allowance Act increase the standard for more than 285,000 children, i.e., increase allowances from the current 200, 250, and 300 kuna for three census groups to 300, 375, and 450 kuna, for which 658 million kuna should be secured in the budget.
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“The budget had provisions for everything and anything, so it is incomprehensible that there is no funding available for increasing the standard of children,” said Marija Alfirev (SDP), asserting that reducing child poverty should find consensus among all and be exempt from political disputes.
She cited the fact that in Croatia, the risk of poverty rate is 20 percent, that 28.5 percent of citizens are at risk of poverty or social exclusion, and that the rate of relative child poverty in Croatia is about 7 percent higher than the EU average.
HDZ representative Ljubica Maksimčuk emphasized that children are the greatest wealth and that the Government will demonstrate this through measures.
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The Ministry of Demography and Family, she said, is already intensively working on the issue of child allowance and intends to increase the asset threshold from 50 to 70 percent of the budget base, which will expand the number of recipients and thus provide additional assistance to families.
Branimir Bunjac (Živi zid) stated that the issue of child poverty clearly does not interest the representatives, referring to the fact that only about 10 representatives discussed the laws in the afternoon.
“Instead of dealing with child poverty, we are dealing with plaques, names of squares, busts, conventions, Ustashas in Argentina, Chetniks on Dinara, partisans… if I were to talk about that, maybe the parliament would be full,” he asserted.
The SDP’s proposal for a professional pension, which would allow workers with qualifying work experience to work concurrently with such pensions, also did not receive support from the HDZ. This category includes drivers, installers, ballet dancers, firefighters, soldiers, police officers, employees in demining jobs, and other officials with qualifying experience.
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This would introduce a parallel system for pension rights, disrupt the existing system, and diminish the current level of pension rights for active military personnel, police officers, authorized officials, pyrotechnicians, and seafarers, said State Secretary in the Ministry of Labor and Pension System Majda Burić.
Although he praised Mrsić’s constructiveness in proposing the law, Ante Babić (HDZ) believes that he should also take care of the financial side since implementation would increase budget expenditures by 118 million kuna.
The Croatian Parliament will continue its session on Thursday.
