- At €620.5 million. [*]The Budget of the Ministry of Social Welfare for the year 2023 [*]Increase over three years in the Budget at a rate of 4.66%, 0.95% and 0.82% for the years 2023, 2024 and 2025, respectively [*]87,3% of the budgeted expenditure for 2023 is for social benefits [*]The objective of the Budget of the Deputy Ministry is to strengthen the welfare state and support vulnerable citizens
The members of the Parliamentary Finance and Budget Committee were today presented the Budget of the Deputy Ministry of Social Welfare for the period 2023-2025 by the Deputy Minister of Social Welfare Ms. Anastasia Anthousi.
Speaking at the Committee's meeting, Ms Anthousi pointed out that the Government of Nicos Anastasiades set as its primary goal the creation of a substantial, efficient and strong welfare state, with high quality, accessible, friendly, affordable and personalized services, which meet the modern needs of the ever-changing society and citizens. To achieve this goal, the transfer of the Department of Social Inclusion from 1 January 2023 completes the establishment of the State Ministry of Social Welfare. As the Deputy Minister noted, henceforth all services to support socially vulnerable groups will be under the umbrella of one Authority, so that the approach is comprehensive, substantive, direct and targeted to those in real need.
Strategic objectives of the Deputy Ministry, according to Ms Anthoussi, remain the modernisation of the organisation, methods and working principles, as well as increasing the operational effectiveness and efficiency of its Departments and Services, through the simplification of procedures and the improvement of citizen accessibility, with the help of digital transformation and e-government.
Budget 2023
The total Budget of the Ministry of State for 2023 (Regular Expenditure and Development Expenditure) amounts to approximately €547.4 million, an increase of €4.6 million compared to the corresponding Budget for 2022, which was set at €542.8 million. It should be noted that, with the transfer of the Department for the Social Integration of Persons with Disabilities (as of 1 January 2023), an amount of €49.8 million[/B] is added to the total Budget for 2023, representing an increase of €2 million compared to the corresponding Budget of the Department for 2022 (€47.8 million). As a result of the above transfer, the total amount of the Budget for 2023 amounts to €597.3 million. To the above is added an amount of €23 million coming from co-financed projects with the Directorate General for Development as Managing Authority, and therefore the final total Budget of the Ministry of State for the year 2023 (Regular Expenditure, Development Expenditure and co-financed projects), amounts to €620.5 million.
With a three-year horizon (2023-2025), the Budget of the Ministry of Social Welfare is estimated to reach approximately €631.5 million by 2025, with an additional increase of another €11 million. By comparison, in 2022, the budget amounted to €550 million and absorption so far stands at 74%. In detail, the Welfare Benefits Management Service has absorbed about €334 million (76%), and Social Welfare Services €70.5 million (70%), while the implementation rate of projects co-financed by Community funds stands at 45% with an amount of €2.7 million.
The full text of the Deputy Minister's statement is available here.
(MKE)
Contents of this article including associated images are owned by PIO
Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or PIO
Source
