Speaking at a news conference in Warsaw on Friday, Marlena Maląg said the government's family support measures were “spectacular in their scope and effectiveness."
Summing up Poland’s family and social policies in 2022, Maląg told reporters: “Amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, Polish families could count on spectacular support from the state. People have not been left to fend for themselves.”
She added that Poland continued to face “the challenge of addressing the low fertility rate.”
Family Welfare Capital, Family 500 Plus, Good Start
This year saw the introduction of a new family support measure, called Family Welfare Capital, which benefits families with children between 12 and 35 months of age, Maląg said.
The allowance is available for every child after the first, with each family entitled to a total of PLN 12,000 (EUR 2,600, USD 2,740) in payments per child, according to officials.
Maląg told reporters: “This measure has so far reached more than 610,000 children with financial assistance to the tune of over PLN 3 billion (EUR 640 million). It complements our flagship Family 500 Plus children’s allowance scheme, which was introduced in 2016.”
She said Polish families have so far received PLN 213 billion (EUR 45.5 billion) under the Family 500 Plus programme, state news agency PAP reported.
“Seven million Polish children receive this benefit every month,” she added.
“Numerous studies published within the European Union and elsewhere show that Poland is making the biggest progress in supporting families and lifting people out of poverty,” Maląg told the news conference.
She estimated that in 2022, over 4 million Polish six-year-olds received assistance to the tune of some PLN 1.5 billion (EUR 320 million) under the Good Start programme, which aims to help parents finance school supplies for their children.
Big Family Charter
She also hailed "the success of the Big Family Charter," a programme of discounts and special rights for families with many children.
So far, over 1.4 million families have joined the programme, reporters were told.
Maląg also said that “the number of nursery places has increased" to more than 230,000 nationwide, from around 84,000 in 2015.
She promised that “a further 100,000 places" would be created in the future, the PAP news agency reported.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, gov.pl, wgospodarce.pl, zus.pl