The government is obliged to double child allowances for
\naround 4 million children following a ruling by the Constitutional Court which
\nrejected as unfounded the government’s argument against this move. The Court
\nruled that a law passed by Parliament to reject a gradual increase in child
\nallowances as proposed by the government is constitutional. As a result, the
\ninitial law will remain in force, a law that was proposed by the Social
\nDemocratic Party in opposition in December last year and which provided for the
\ndoubling of child allowances from 150 lei to 300 lei, which is about 60 euros,
\nand from 300 to 600 lei for children with disabilities. The measure was to be
\napplied last January, but the government argued the state budget could not sustain
\nit and adopted an emergency order to postpone it by August. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
After hearing the Court’s ruling, prime minister
\nLudovic Orban said doubling child allowances at this particular moment would
\nlead to an increase in the budget deficit and that they should be doubled instead
\nover five stages as proposed by the government. Ludovic Orban:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Doubling child allowances requires additional budget
\nfunds of some 7 billion lei [around 1.44 billion euros], which would lead to an
\nincrease in the budget deficit of 0.6%. We’ve been in this situation before. The
\nNational Liberal Party will double child allowances, but will do so over five
\nstages, with the final stage on 1st July 2022. Increasing child
\nallowances is a priority for the National Liberal Party, but this increase must
\ntake into account the economic situation and the budget resources available.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Liberal senator Alina Gorghiu says the government will
\nconsider its options when the Constitutional Court publishes its justification.
\nThe leader of the Social Democratic Party Marcel Ciolacu says, however, that
\nthere are enough budget funds to double child allowances, while his fellow party
\nmember and interim Senate speaker Robert Cazanciuc accused the government of
\nincompetence. The president of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats C\u0103lin
\nPopescu-T\u0103riceanu said the government is obliged to double child allowances and
\nincrease pensions by 40% and accused it of trying to prevent these measures
\nfrom coming into effect. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The latest Constitutional Court ruling comes after
\nParliament this week moved to increase pensions by 40% instead of 14% as decided
\nby the government. According to the government’s estimates, the decision would
\ncost the budget an additional 2 to 3 billion euros this year and 12 to 14
\nbillion euros next year. Romania’s public debt has already gone up considerably,
\nrising by some 15.4 billion euros in the first seven months of the year alone. (CM)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Constitutional Court of Romania rules child allowances are to double instead of increase gradually, as government proposes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":82962,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[35664,19347],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-86752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-benefits","tag-romania"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n