Billions for Polish children
PR dla Zagranicy
Victoria Bieniek
07.03.2017 08:19
Some PLN 19 billion (EUR 4.4 billion) has been paid out for nearly four million children under the government's flagship 500+ family benefit programme, the Polish family minister has said.
Family Minister Elżbieta Rafalska. Photo:Flickr.com/Kancelaria Premiera.Foto: Flickr.com/Kancelaria Premiera
Under the scheme, the government gives parents PLN 500 a month for each child in low-income families, and for second and subsequent children in all other families.
Some 3.82 million children under the age of 18 have benefited from the government programme since it was implemented last April, Poland's Family Minister Elżbieta Rafalska has said.
About 1.5 million of those children are firstborns, nearly 700,000 are only-children, and some 128,000 have disabilities, she said.
Rafalska added that there has not been a noticeable decline in women in the workforce, contrary to predictions by the programme's critics, but it has achieved its intended aim of boosting the birth rate.
The programme has also generated the benefit of almost stamping out child poverty in Poland. (vb/pk)
Source: PAP