MINSK, 21 September (BelTA) – There are plans to expand the number of grounds to use family capital prematurely. The respective proposal will make its way into the draft decree that was discussed at the meeting with Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko on 21 September and was approved at large by the head of state. The document will be finalized in the near future and submitted to Aleksandr Lukashenko for signing, Labor and Social Security Minister Irina Kostevich told reporters following the meeting, BelTA has learned.
According to her, the grounds to use family capital prematurely will be expanded when it comes to the purchase of housing, medical treatment and education. Thus, families where children or parents have disabilities might be able to claim family capital ahead of schedule to purchase rehabilitation products and equipment.
“This year and last year we traveled across the country to meet with large families. They suggested expanding the scope of the family capital program. In particular, they asked the government for an opportunity to use family capital for a bigger number of purposes. Their request was taken on board in the new draft decree,” Irina Kostevich said.
The minister stressed that family capital is the most powerful incentive for families to give birth to third and subsequent children. The family capital program was launched in Belarus in 2015 and has proved effective: over the past 10 years, the number of large families has almost doubled. In 2020, the family capital program was extended and revised – large families got the right to use it ahead of schedule. Almost 40,000 decisions have already been made to allow the premature use of family capital (in total, 104,000 deposit accounts worth $824 million and Br484 million have been opened as part of the family capital program since 2015).
Around 90% of those who claimed family capital ahead of schedule used it to improve their living conditions. Taking it into consideration, the draft decree is to allow taking advantage of this program ahead of schedule to repay a loan for construction (renovation), purchase of housing distributed by employers of family members, as well as to purchase a share in the housing, as a result of which the family becomes the owner of entire housing.
In order to prevent the misuse of the family capital program, the draft decree proposes to introduce restrictive measures.
In addition to that, the request of large families to allow them to use family capital to buy medical products and medicines for sophisticated and major surgeries in orthopedics was upheld. So was the proposal to use the program to purchase rehabilitation products for disabled adults, as well as children with visual impairments, musculoskeletal system disorders.
“The measures proposed by the draft decree were supported by and large. Yet, the head of state gave an instruction to scrutinize the document once again. Each case of the early use of family capital should be under control of local executive authorities. We will promptly fine-tune this draft decree in collaboration with the oblast executive committees so that the document incorporates all the instructions of the head of state,” the minister concluded.
