By Georgia Michael
"Peoples who do not give birth are doomed to extinction"[/QUOTE]
"Peoples who do not give birth are doomed to extinction". With this phrase, the President of the Organization of Polyteñon Dinos Olympiou wanted to end our telephone conversation, who referred to the tragic situation in which large families find themselves today.
The continuous increases have put large families in an unfavourable position at a time when the Organization is trying to find solutions and sensitize the state to act.
"The accuracy affects above all large families. In addition to fuel and energy, it has also hit basic necessities. So understand that if a family buys one loaf of bread and one milk, a large family needs twice as much. Hence double the cost. Moreover, if a family has a senior high school student and needs to constantly transport him to the tutorials, this implies constant use of a car and therefore fuel, the prices of which have skyrocketed," Mr Olympiou told the Cyprus Times.
Characteristic of the financial straits in which large families find themselves, he said, is the fact that some of them are forced to interrupt their children's studies.
"You can understand their situation to ask their children to interrupt their studies because they can't cope. And how could they cope anyway. Accuracy on one hand, low wages on the other. In addition to tuition fees, if they are private universities, there are also apartment rents if the children are studying in another city or country. There are cases with families with three students who are forced to stop one, so that he can work and help finish the studies of his other siblings. In the hope that when these are finished he will study this one, with similar help. But he also has children who have given up completely because their parents could not afford it."
In these difficulties, the Organization attempts to become the refuge of families by finding solutions. "As an organization we have found colleges that we have partnered with to help children of large families with lower tuition fees to finish in disciplines where they can find immediate employment. We also come to our attention cases where children while finishing their studies, because they have no money to repay the tuition fees, do not get their degree. A university sent a letter to a student that due to an outstanding amount of about three thousand euros she could not get her degree. We mediated to find a solution and the university reduced, as much as it could, the balance to at least pay in instalments. In other cases we are trying to find sponsors and people to help pay back."
Setting up Ad Hoc
Members of the Pancyprian Organization of Polychildren met in the middle of the month with the Deputy Minister of Social Welfare, Anastasia Anthousi. At the meeting, the problems they face were put on the table, asking for changes in benefits.
"It was decided to set up an Ad Hoc Committee which will examine our demands. They will be evaluated and costed so that decisions can be made. Our request is to change the income criteria for child benefits to cover more families. Currently, families with incomes up to €59,000 are entitled to an allowance, with the organisation calling for two more categories with higher incomes to be added. The second thing we called for is the implementation of the President's announcement to reinstate the mother's allowance and to return the child benefit, which was cut by 9%, to pre-2014 levels. Third and very importantly, the President's announcement to not lose the status of a large family should be put into practice.
For example, a family that has five children, three of whom go to university and two of whom stay until the age of three receives the extra student grant which was a result of the tax credits that were taken away. When three go to university then the family loses its status as a large family and for the other two children they don't get that extra student grant."
"In a decade we will lose our identity"
The island's identity may have survived the passage of dozens of conquerors but under-generation seems to be a real threat. As extreme as this prediction is, the rising cost of living is preventing couples from having children which increases the threat of under-generation.
"Unfortunately we are the last Hellenism left outside Metropolitan Greece and every year we are decreasing. In a decade we will have lost our identity. If one considers that of the total of about 9,500 births we have per year, 2,500 are children of foreigners then mathematically that is where we are headed. I am waiting for the population census to be finished and for us to be given data on how many couples are Cypriot to Cypriot. I estimate it will be around half a million. The children of the rest will be either foreigners or Cypriots with a second country abroad."
For the umpteenth time Mr Olympiou stresses that the state must immediately change its policy to make it more favourable for those who wish to have more than three children.
"It is imperative to take measures to curb under-birth rate and save the large families. We asked once again to support families to have a third child by providing a one-off payment of eight thousand euros plus benefits for families with three children. If the family again has a fourth child, then this amount should be increased to twelve thousand plus the benefits received by large families. In addition I have made a recommendation in Parliament that a mother with four children or more should be exempt from lifetime income tax;
the funds of the Republic will not be affected, they will simply not be collected. Serious incentives. Unfortunately, the large family, which is the lifeblood of this country, is not held in the same esteem as large families in other European countries. A year ago Italy decided to give the sum of EUR 250 per month for each child from the 7th month to the 21st year of age. It will cost EUR 20 billion a year, but it shows that governments in Europe are seriously concerned with the demographic problem. The most important investment for a state is people."
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