The alarm was sounded once again before the Parliament by the Ad Hoc Parliamentary Committee for the Study of the Demographic Problem, which examined before the Minister of Labour, Kyriakos Kousios and the Deputy Minister of Welfare, Anastasia Anthousis, the issue of low birth rate, with the Commission requesting from all involved ministries to inform about the Government's plans and if there is any differentiation within the framework of the National Strategy.
The competent Ministers, as and the representatives of the Ministries, informed on their side about the strategy followed by the state and as it became clear there is a continuation of the policy that was adopted the previous year. In fact, as indicated by Mr. Kousios, 27 million euros have been paid for the maternity allowance for 2022, while 1 million euros have been paid for the paternity allowance until October, for support.
For his part, the president of the Commission, Linos Papagiannis, pointed out that there is a difference in dealing with the problem, with what the Government is following. “There is some data on the most important problem called underbirth, as the indicators have not improved, but we cannot say that with what we have heard, that no efforts are being made”.
However, the data cannot be disputed, as it has been shown that the problem is increasing and at the same time our country is facing the threat called demographic change. Indicatively, the birth rate seems to remain close to 1.4% and as it was seen from the data, the increase from 1.3% comes from the births of foreign couples and not from the native population.
Also. , Mr. Papagiannis, sounded the alarm to note that, “I hope that with the revision of the National Strategy we will have some better results”.
At the same time, DISY MP, Prodromos Alabritis, congratulated the two ministers for issues that were launched and implemented by the current administration. Mainly, among others, he focused on the expansion of maternity leave, the implementation of paternity leave and the institutionalization of paid parental leave. He also welcomed the institution of tuition fees in nursery schools, the increase in the income criteria for child allowance, as well as the reinstatement of the mother's allowance. Also, to support families, he noted the housing plans of the Ministry of the Interior, but also the increase in optional full-day schools.
But, as Mr. Alabritis added, “in order to support the family and to deal with the problem of low fertility, a lot more must be done in the context of an integrated plan. We await this comprehensive planning from the responsible Minister for the demographic and family policy action plan. Among others like DISY, we propose to increase the family tax-free income to 39,500, so as to increase the purchasing power of the family. Also, expanding child benefit to cover many more families, while the total amount must increase for each additional child to help families have a second, third or even more child. Extension of parental leave and the implementation of flexible work, newborn child package for all children and study for a lump sum for all new births with a special increase for the third and fourth child”.
Indeed, he received congratulations the Deputy Minister of Welfare, Ms. Anastasia Anthousi, for the reflexes she showed in the case of the birth of the quadruplets in Aradippou, where due to the income criteria of the two parents, she was not entitled to any allowance and with her actions she managed to directly support the specific family.
- Parliament sent a plan with recommendations on the low birth rate-“No response was received”
- More elderly people than births-Every three workers, one retiree
- They are preparing a memorandum on the low birth rate-From tax reduction to houses
