In the first reading, the Riigikogu rejected the bill of the Center Party faction to increase the allowance for the first and second child from 80 euros to 100 euros per month in order to improve the livelihood of families with children. According to Andre Hanimägi, a member of the Social Committee, all government parties have found that every child must be equally supported, but they do not want to take action, because besides the tax reform, there is no resource or will to do so.
Hanimägi pointed out that the cut in family allowances was justified both by saving money and making the allowances fairer, but the latter has not been created by the amendment to the law. “It would be fair and proper if the child allowance were equal, i.e. at least 100 euros for each child. This has been society’s expectation for the legislator from the beginning, and the stakeholders involved in the discussions, as well as the politicians themselves, have repeatedly pointed out the reasonableness of this change,” emphasized the member of the board of the Center Party.
He added that both the Social Democrats and Estonia 200 were much bolder in their pre-election promises and even promised 150 euros in support for each child. “We gave the opportunity to support the increase of the child allowance to 100 and 150 euros as well as the indexing of the allowances, but hiding behind the difficult budget situation, both were voted out of the procedure,” said Hanimägi.
The deputy pointed out that the budget is a place for political choices, and the cost of child support of 60 million euros per year has more than eight times less impact on the budget than the approx. 500 million tax reform. “It is incomprehensible why this one and the most expensive promise of the Reform Party is much more important than returning a sense of justice to families or doubling the support for disabled people, which is also about 60 million euros. There are a huge number of bottlenecks and problems to really deal with, but the winner will have his temper and passionately stand for the heavily criticized tax reform,” said Hanimägi.
According to Hanimägi, soaring inflation and the upcoming tax increases are affecting the economic livelihood of many families. “The changes will hit families with lower incomes especially painfully. I believe that against the background of the lowest birth rate of the century and deteriorating livelihoods, the state should take a clearly positive, fair and significant step in the direction of families,” said Hanimägi.
