Prague, Oct 14 (CTK) – The Czech state’s social and welfare spending, including on pro-employment policy, is projected at 649 billion crowns in 2018, a 32-billion rise compared to the social spending this year, it ensues from the 2018 budget bill the government has submitted to parliament.
A planned rise in pensions is one of the factors behind the social spending’s overall increase.
More than three quarters of social expenditures go to pensions, which will require 434.4 billion crowns from the state budget, 18 billion more than in 2017 and 48 billion more than in 2014.
The average monthly pension is to rise by 475 crowns as of January.
The pension indexation rules will change as of next year. Pensions will be raised either by the whole inflation or the whole index of pensioners’ living costs, depending on which of the two figures is higher.
The pension hike will also start to be derived from a half of the average wage increase, instead of one third of it.
The sum the state pays to the health insurance system for certain groups of inhabitants such as children, the disabled, pensioners and the unemployed will increase by four billion crowns. The monthly payment for one such person will rise by 49 crowns to 969 crowns.
The state’s overall payments in this respect will reach 70 billion crowns next year, according to the budget bill.
As a result of rising wages, the state sickness insurance payments will increase by four billion to almost 33 billion crowns.
On the other hand, the spending on pro-employment policy, such as retraining courses, communal work and creation of new jobs, will drop from 2.24 billion crowns projected for 2017 to 400 million in 2018.
The sum to be spent on unemployment benefits will decrease as well, from this year’s expected 8.4 billion to seven billion next year, as a result of the economic growth and declining unemployment rate.
A total of 8.6 billion crowns is to go to the allowances for people in deprivation.
