PARLIAMENT APPROVES SOCIAL ALLOWANCES RAISING

Social payments for 78 thousand Moldovan citizens will be raised. A corresponding draft law was approved by the Parliament in a first reading on Friday.

State Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Protection Viorica Dumbraveanu said during the presentation of the bill that since January 1 it is proposed to raise social allowances to the disabled from childhood (27.3 thousand people) and the disabled minors (12.1 thousand people) by 20%.

According to her, starting from April 1, the survivors’ benefit for the disabled (10.5 thousand people) and children (5.2 thousand people) will grow 10%, while the elderly care allowance – 5%.

Socialist MP Vladimir Odnostalco criticized the draft, regarding the measures, implied in the document, as insufficient.

“It is even blasphemous to call it raising, For some, this increment will account for just several dozens of lei”, he expressed his indignation.

According to Government’s calculations, the fulfillment of draft law provisions will demand around 65 million lei. Financial means are provided in the 2018 state budget.

As Infotag has already reported, as of the beginning of the year, over 61 thousand people were beneficiaries of state social allowances. The size of monthly benefit varied from 153 lei (US$9) – to people of pension age to 562 lei (US$33) – to the disabled minors.