Poles swift to sign up for watershed child benefit programme
PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge
02.04.2016 12:59
Over 110,000 applications had been filed by Saturday morning following Friday's launch of a new child benefit programme aimed at raising Poland's birth rate.
A mother (L) signs up for the programme at a municipal office in Zatory, east central Poland. Photo: PAP/Bartłomiej Zborowski
The 'Family 500 plus' programme, which was a cornerstone of the conservative Law and Justice party's electoral campaign, will see monthly handouts of PLN 500 (EUR 112) for every household's second and subsequent child.
Meanwhile, in an amendment to the original plan, poorer families will be granted the PLN 500 even if they have just one child.
Families have three months to submit their first application for the payouts. Even if they apply towards the end of June, they will still get payments backdated to April 1.
The government had earlier appealed to wealthier families to not make use of the programme.
Poland's low birth rate had prompted analysts to predict a demographic crisis, with tax-payers potentially struggling to cover pensioners' benefits.
The ratio of Polish workers to pensioners is currently at 3:1, but experts forecast that by 2040 it could be 2:1, and by 2060 1:1.
The previous centrist government, led by Civic Platform (PO), had raised the retirement age to 67 for both sexes (from 65 for men and 60 for women) in a bid to counteract the problem.
However, Law and Justice opposed the raising of the retirement age – one of its pledges in the lead-up to the 25 October general election was to scrap the Civic Platform led reform. (nh/pk)