The Deputy Minister of Social Welfare, Anastasia Anthousi, speaking to the Parliamentary Labour Committee on Tuesday, announced that the proposal to support families with subsidies for nursery care will be submitted on Wednesday to the Council of Ministers, where it is expected to be approved for submission to the Parliament afterwards. In addition, the parental leave bill is expected to be submitted to the plenum for a vote next Thursday.
Responding to questions from MPs at a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Committee on the long delays observed in the examination and payment of benefits, Ms. Anthousi also said that it is planned that from September all provinces[/B] will be staffed with officials who will receive, check for completeness and enter applications into the system at the same time in order to improve the time[/B] of processing applications, as the applicant will know at the same time whether his/her application is complete or whether he/she needs to bring some additional documentation. As the Deputy Minister noted, this is expected to speed up the process considerably, as 95% of the applications received have incomplete information.
With regard to the complaints conveyed by MPs in relation to the call centre not answering calls, Ms. Anthousi said that a contract to set up a call centre is expected to be signed in October, in cooperation with the Ministry of Labour and the State Ministry of Innovation. Until then, the call centre will be staffed by people through the ANAD and students who will be trained to serve people.
In relation to the computerisation of EEE applications, the Deputy Minister noted that it is progressing and will be submitted electronically, but without stopping the operation of the service centres[/I], in order to serve applicants who have difficulties, of course.
The Deputy Minister replied to a question from MPs in relation to accuracy that there are no plans to adjust the amounts of the EEO benefits so that they do not act as disincentives to join the labour market.
The committee also discussed at length the issue of the suspension of benefits, with AKEL and DIKO MPs talking about "sudden death",[/I] since the recipient is not notified of the suspension. Anthoussi replied that, apart from the letters sent so far, in which the recipient is notified of the suspension of the benefit and asked to bring the necessary supporting documents within 20 days, the Service has started sending SMS messages for more timely information. MP Panicos Leonidou of DIKO noted that the recipient should be notified that there is an intention to suspend the benefit, so that he/she can meet the requirements without being left without a benefit until the procedure is completed.
In addition, the Deputy Minister noted that a new law will be tabled by decision of the Council of Ministers, which will regulate foster care issues.
After the conclusion of the meeting, the Deputy Chairman of the Committee, AKEL MP Christos Christofias, said that in a previous meeting of the Committee with the Deputy Minister "we had asked the executive to take initiatives on a number of issues". Regarding accuracy, Christofias said that the one-off amount of 100-150 euros given to our poorest citizens cannot be a solution."
"We note with regret that despite repeated discussions the problems remain. We are confronted with the malfunctions of the system, the unnecessary inconvenience of applicants, the huge delays in the examination of applications. The demand: the adoption of policies to improve the situation," he noted.
DISY MP Fotini Tsiridou[/B] said on the issue of delays in the payment of benefits, that there is the example of the coronavirus benefit, which was paid more quickly. "Because we have very good examples from the time when the coronavirus benefits were paid, I think we can do even better," she noted.
Furthermore, regarding the legislation on fostering, Tsiridou said that "we are pleased to have heard that the new legislation on fostering is also moving forward.There is also a study of economic models for the adjustment of certain allowances, but the Deputy Minister will have more to tell us in the next period of time," adding that the "proposal in relation to crèches is also going to the Cabinet tomorrow, and finally, in relation to parental leave we have been informed that the legislative review has been completed and now the Ministry is now ready to table it and pass it through the Cabinet and the bill will be tabled in the House of Representatives within the next few days. Let me remind you that the issue of parental leave concerns paid parental leave of 18 weeks for both mother and father, up to the age of 8 years of a child."
The MP for the EPP, Andreas Apostolou, also welcomed the announcement on crèches. "We are pleased to hear that tomorrow's Cabinet of Ministers finally approves the plan and announces the amount of support that 16,000 families will receive in September to cover the costs of nurseries. We have also been informed that the bill on parental leave will be tabled in plenary the Thursday after next." Apostolou added that "we must say that these are two projects that the late, dear Minister of Labour Zeta Aimylianidou personally ran and will be implemented immediately to support families and young couples. Our goal is to continue our efforts at the parliamentary level and in cooperation with the executive, so that we can continue to design and implement policies to support families."
Source: CNA
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