A New Pillar of the Family Support System Announced

Another main pillar will soon be added to the Hungarian family support system, which will include an element of physical, emotional, and mental health, announced Ágnes Hornung, State Secretary for Families.

The state secretary said that they are already working on a package to support this pillar. As she said,

together with home creation, financial security and freedom of choice will now be among the four main pillars of the Hungarian family support system.

She recalled that the government decided to focus on families in 2010, when it launched a family-friendly turnaround that is still ongoing today, and that more than 30 family policy measures have been adopted in the 13 years since then.

Describing the measures introduced so far, Ágnes Hornung said that the Family Housing Allowance (CSOK), started on January 1, 2015, will be renewed. This means that families will be able to benefit from a state-subsidized loan with a maximum interest rate of three percent, depending on the number of children they have, which can be either HUF 15 million (EUR 39,440), 30 million (EUR 78,890), or even 50 million (EUR 131,480).

Speaking about financial security as a second pillar, the state secretary stressed that these measures had been the most important since 2010, highlighting the family tax allowance, the infant care allowance, and the one-off personal income tax refund. The third pillar is freedom of choice, helping to ensure that neither education nor a career are a disadvantage for those having children, and therefore the number of municipalities providing nursery places has been tripled, she said.

Speaking about the fourth pillar, soon to be introduced,

Hornung stressed the principle of “a healthy body in a healthy soul,” as physical and mental health is essential for raising a child in happiness, and in the future even more emphasis will be placed on this pillar.

Via MTI, Featured image: Pixabay