Fewer people receiving welfare payouts in Poland
PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk
08.01.2018 14:15
A flagship family benefits programme and historically low unemployment have helped bring about a fall in the number of people receiving welfare payouts in Poland.
Photo: Narodowy Bank Polski/Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0)
The country’s Central Statistical Office (GUS) said that the number of people receiving welfare handouts in 2016 dropped by 9.2% compared to 2015, the biggest fall since 2008.
In total, 2,478,700 people received welfare payouts in 2016, the office said.
In April 2016, the government started giving families with two or more children benefits of PLN 500 (USD 144, EUR 120) a month per child.
Poorer families receive the allowance even if they have just one child.
According to the government, the “500+” initiative has halved poverty and nearly eradicated child poverty.
The programme was a key pledge by the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, which won Poland’s general election in late 2015.
Unemployment in Poland fell to a new low of 6.5% in November, according to the Central Statistical Office.
(pk/gs)
Source: PAP