Although these family allowances have been increased since the beginning of January this year, the Center for Labor and Social Affairs pays them to parents monthly in arrears.
The Labor, Social Affairs and Family Center of the Slovak Republic (UPSVAR) will start paying higher parental allowances this month. Although these family allowances have been increased since the beginning of January this year, the headquarters pays them to parents monthly in arrears. “It means that the headquarters will pay the first contributions in the new amount in February. Parents will receive the allowance at the same time as they have been used to until now – approximately in the middle of the month,” said UPSVAR spokeswoman Jana Lukáčová.
The amount of the parental allowance has risen sharply since the beginning of this year. For parents who worked and received maternity benefit before starting parental leave, this is an increase from last year’s 220.70 euros to 370 euros. For parents who did not work before the birth of the child and therefore did not receive maternity benefits from the Social Insurance Agency, the parental allowance increased by almost 50 euros to 270 euros.
The parental allowance should be increased by 150 euros for approximately half of the 140,000 recipients of this benefit. These are parents who worked before the birth of the child and therefore met the conditions for entitlement to maternity benefits from the Social Insurance Agency. The other half of the recipients of the parental allowance are parents who did not work before the birth of the child and did not receive maternity benefits from the Social Insurance Office. For this group of parents, the parental allowance will increase by 50 euros per month. “We always publish the statistics of paid allowances on the 20th of the following month, that is, we will publish statistical data on parental allowances paid in February on March 20,” said Lukáčová. The increase of these family benefits should require 145 million euros from the state budget this year.
Parents can receive parental allowance until the child is three years old, in the case of a long-term adverse health condition of the child until the child is six years old.
