Linas Jegelevičius
After the Lithuanian Parliament, the Seimas, has overwhelmingly supported this week respective amendments to the Sickness and Maternity Social Insurance Law, motifs to work while raising a child will increase – the sickness benefit for caring for relatives, including children, will be extended.
Also, the minimum social insurance maternity, paternity and childcare benefits will increase by 92 euros “in hand”, says the Lithuanian Minister of Social Security and Labour, Monika Navickienė.
“We consistently take care of improving the situation of families in the country,
increasing their well-being. One of the important decisions for families is the possibility to take care of sick relatives for longer and receive sickness benefits: children up to the age of 14 get three weeks instead of two, and older people – two weeks instead of one. Persons who work and pay social security contributions will receive higher social security maternity, paternity, and childcare benefits than those who do not work. We also encourage persons receiving childcare allowances to remain in the labour market while raising a child, as far as possible, and thereby increase their family’s income,” M. Navickienė said in a press release.
However, opposition MPs criticize the ministry, maintaining that the extra 92 euros is nothing considering high inflation and also such prices.
“It is a droplet, which will not have any impact.
The decisions are ambiguous to me, as they attempt to address the consequences but not the reasons of our health sector problems. First of all, for many people, seeing a doctor is becoming more and more difficult due to long waiting lines. Even people struck with life-menacing illnesses must wait to see a respective specialist many weeks and months. Secondly, and most importantly, instead of allocating our budget resources for wellbeing and illness prevention, we are doling money out for the consequences of our sedentary lifestyle, obesity and lack of physical activity. It is just an abnormal approach, one characteristic to the liberal Seimas,” Dainius Kepenis, an opposition MP, told BNN.
Among other things, the amended law also envisions improvement of conditions for caring for close relatives. Thus, sickness benefits for caring for loved ones will be paid longer. For caregivers of children, the sickness benefit instead of 14 days will be paid for 21 calendar days, and for those caring for older family members, like spouse, mother, father or children over 14 years old, instead of 7 calendar days, the sickness benefit will be paid for 14 calendar days.
Minister Navickienė says this change will require 6.5 million euros per year
and that it will be applicable to 30 thousand families in the country.
However, Jolanta, a 32-year-old single mother, in Klaipėda, Lithuania’s third-largest town (she agreed to speak on condition of anonymity), believes that the law amendments will not bring a big change in her care of an adolescent son who often gets sick due to an ancestral condition.
“The whole system we have here in Lithuania is unfavourable. And it is getting very much such – to an extent where young families do not want to have any children. The costs are too high. No wonder that young people prefer pets over kids. In my case, when it comes to caring for my son, I rely on my retired parents, definitely, not on the state,” she told BNN.
In addition, the amended law foresees that, when caring for children under the age of 18, suffering from diseases due to which a severe level of disability has been determined,
the sickness benefit will be paid not only for their care in an inpatient or medical rehabilitation
and sanatorium treatment facility, but also on an outpatient basis. Last year, there were 3.5 thousand such children. The change will require 4 million euros per year, according to the ministry.
The ministry hopes that residents who receive the minimum childcare benefit and other income or benefits, from the 1st of January, 2024 would have more opportunities to work while caring for their loved one – their benefits will not be reduced, if the childcare allowance and other income or benefits together do not exceed the minimum monthly salary.
As a result of the law amendments, from 2024, the maximum compensatory payouts when a person receives the maximum childcare allowance and a salary, will not have to exceed the person’s former salary and the average of the last five monthly salaries on the date of receipt of benefits.
Perhaps the most commented provision of the amended law is the raise of the minimum social insurance maternity, paternity and childcare benefits by 92 euros “in hand” –
from 294 euros before taxes, or 276 euros “in hand”, to 392 euros “before taxes” or 368 euros “in hand”.
“This will ensure that social insurance benefits for maternity, paternity, and childcare are higher than the currently valid amount of minimum consumption needs at 354 euros now,” M. Navickienė said.
But Edita, a mother of two teenage sons in Vilnius, shoots back: “It is really nothing. Just extra-curriculum activities of our boys cost us nearly 250 euros monthly,” she told BNN.
This change will affect almost 5 thousand low-income earners. Almost 2 million euros for that will be allocated this year and 4 million euros in 2024.
And lastly,
the new law provisions stipulate new conditions for persons undergoing voluntary addiction treatment.
For persons who voluntarily undergo treatment for pathological gambling addiction, abstinence due to the use of psychoactive substances, the syndrome of dependence on the use of psychoactive substances, a longer term for the payment of sickness benefit will be set – instead of 28 calendar days, it will be paid for 40 calendar days.
In addition, the sickness benefit of 40 calendar days will be split and paid twice a year. A person will be able to receive sickness benefit not only during treatment for inpatient care in hospital, but also for outpatient care.
About 300 thousand euros will be needed for that and the change will affect 700 persons, the ministry said.