Kopač Mrak presented the adopted changes to welfare legislation, aimed to help the most vulnerable groups of society.

The government adopted changes to the Welfare Eligibility Act and to the Social Benefits Act at Friday's correspondence session. The changes now have to be fast-tracked through parliament and adopted by MPs.

The Minister for Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Rights, Anja Kopač Mrak, said the legislation changes were based on studies which exposed deficiencies in the current welfare legislation. Most obvious was the poor state that bigger and single-parent families find themselves in, as well as the status of other single persons among social welfare recipients.

The minister said that in the future the real economic status of all applicants will be taken into consideration. Under the proposed changes child benefits would count as one’s own income, apart from the extra benefits for single-parent families. Child benefits would be 20% less than benefits for the first child in the first income bracket, which currently stand at 22,80 euros.

The limit for considering student work as part of the family income is raised at 132 euros. Credit loans taken out for buying or building property will not be considered as income.

Child benefits for under-age students will be reduced when they receive student scholarships. At the same time around 20,000 individuals will be able to get state scholarships, for which the government will allocate an additional 18 million euros. With lower child benefits the
government expects to save some EUR 9m.

Funeral expenses as social aid
Changes to the legislation also promise changes in the areas of social and security benefits and care allowances, for easier access of care allowance recipients to the disability commission.

Minister Anja Kopač Mrak expressed regret though that they did not manage to ensure care allowance also for those in institutional care programs.

Subsidies for school meals will be more accessible as under the changes schools will provide the meals on the basis of information on children benefits.

With the abolishment of the right to funeral expenses and death grants, as rights guaranteed with the compulsory health insurance, we will now have two new forms of extraordinary financial social aid. The legislation changes will introduce a financial aid in covering funeral
expenses, and a financial aid because of the death of a family member.

According to the minister some of the changes will step into force with the new year, while other changes will come into effect with the beginning of next year's school year.