The National Union Block (BNS) is requesting the Government to return upon the decision of delaying the growth of children's' allowance, foreseen to take place on July 1, 2021 and to show availability for consulting social partners regarding the identification of a package of measures to combating poverty among children.
"Despite the highly praised economic growth, Romania's children are more and more exposed to the risk of poverty and social exclusion, and this process will be accelerated by the the measures which lack in responsibility and empathy by the current Government. In 2019, the risk of poverty and social exclusion among the under 16 population was of 34.6%, the highest in Europe. 2020 did not only bring a huge risk to the health of the population, but also a risk of poverty among children, this indicator having growing in 2020 to 36.1%. After 4 years, during the period of 2016-2019, a steady rate of poverty reduction among children was realised, in 2020 this trend was again inverted. The poverty and social exclusion rate among children has a close connection with the rate of school drop-out. For this chapter too, Romania is Europe's shame, registering a growth in 2020, as opposed to 2019," the BNS representatives say in a press release sent to AGERPRES on Thursday.
The union organization specifies that through promoted policies at this moment the Government is doing nothing else than "wasting a generation".
"For 2.2 billion RON / year, which is approximately 400 million Euro, less than what the Romanian Government is taking responsibility for through the PNRR (National Recovery and Resilience Plan) for 12 km of subway line for Bucharest and Cluj (the richest, yet with great political importance cities in Romania) and less than what Romania decided to invest through the PNRR in governmental cloud. Digitalization and cloud governing have no sense for a poor, with no education population," the BNS press release mentions.
According to the source, the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection sent on Thursday an emergency ordinance through which it takes responsibility even more than the already announced delay of increasing children's allowance, which was planned to be done on July 1, 2021.
"In fact, the current Government proposes no more, no less, than reducing allowance by 114 RON for children under 2 years of age and those with handicap by 57 RON for children between 2 and 18 years old. It is proposed that the sum for increasing allowance, which was supposed to be granted in July this year, to be granted in January 2022, and the sums for increasing as of January 2022 and July 2022 to never be able to be granted. This proposal is even more toxic because it is issueded in the context in which the Ministry of Labor has already elaborated the National Strategy for Social Inclusion and Combating Poverty," the BNS unionists say.