MINSK, 30 November (BelTA) – Belarus' Labor and Social Security Minister Irina Kostevich has given an interview to the ONT TV channel, BelTA informs.
“We have increased pensions twice, that is, on 1 July the pensions rose by 6% and from 1 December they will increase by another 6%. In addition to that, I want to emphasize that this year we have increased the minimum subsistence budget four times. The minimum subsistence budget determines the amount of pension bonuses that are paid to pensioners who are 75 years old and older. As a result, the average retirement pension for non-working pensioners will be Br513, up 12% over December 2019. In 2020, we will spend over Br13 billion on pension benefits. Is this a lot or little? This is almost 9% of GDP,” the minister said.
According to Irina Kostevich, the three-year maternity leave is the most significant and essential form of support of families by the government. “The government pays benefits during the three years of the maternity leave. Does it make sense to shorten the maternity leave? We have analyzed how our mothers use their maternity leave today. Some 68,000 children from one to three years old regularly attend the kindergarten, while slightly over 6,000 mothers went back to work full time. In this case, the government supports these mothers twice,” she said. The minister believes that if a sufficient number of nursery groups open in the country, mothers will be willing to return to work. “As for the seven-hour working day for mothers with many children, this was the proposal of the Labor and Social Security Ministry. We suggested this as an alternative, that is they can either have an extra day off during the week, or instead, the family can choose a shorter seven-hour working day. We will submit this proposal next year and discuss it with MPs,” the minister said.
She added that since the family capital program was launched, more than 91,000 deposit accounts were opened in Belarus for a total amount of Br2.3 billion.
“From 1 January, the base amount will increase by 5.4%. The base amount determines the amount of wages for public-sector employees. However, we went further than this. There are public-sector employees, like kindergarten teacher assistants, kindergarten teachers, social workers and others, whose work is rather low paid today. Therefore, we are taking another step, and from 1 January 2021, incentive payments for these groups of workers will increase,” Irina Kostevich said.
