While the world is concerned about overpopulation, countries like Belarus are struggling to maintain the number of inhabitants. President of Belarus plans to offer even more incentives for couples to have 3 and more children. To couples who have a third child he plans to offer an apartment and for the fourth kid “even more privileges”. Pairs who have a fifth child should get “unprecedented privileges”, Lukashenko announced.
How Belarus supports families with kids
The country offers a paid parental leave until the child reaches the age of 3. But that’s not all. The President said during a recent meeting with border patrol troops and their families that even more privileges could be given to parents that have 3 or more children, KP.by reported.
Families should have “at least 3 kids”, according to the President. Right now most parents choose to have only 1-2 babies.
Privileges for parents with more than 2 kids
Such families are offered a special queue to get an apartment from the state (public housing). They are also offered a special mortgage rate of only 1% for 40 years, if the family has low income, to be able to purchase an apartment immediately without a waiting list.
Other privileges include discount rates for electricity and water, council contributions.
One of the parents is able to get an extra day off during the working week. To be eligible, both mother and father should be working full-time and kids must be under 16.
The kids are getting free food in school cafes and get 50% discount off fees for kindergartens.
For the birth of the third and subsequent children parents are paid $10,000 cash into a special fund, which is similar to “maternity capital” program in Russia. This money could be used once the youngster turns 18 to purchase property, pay for studies or medical expenses, or used to get an additional pension for the mother.
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Are there dependency allowance after each child (means married couples get an allowance from the state on a monthly basis after each child in their household)?
Anyway the state can`t solve the problem if mind with only the financial aspect, and only in the case of more than 2 children.
First the couple must have 2 somehow…
Robert, yes, there is some assistance from the state, as described in the article, in the form of discounts and free services, faster queues for public housing etc.