This year, the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family (MPSVR) of the SR fulfilled a large part of its goalsfrom the introduction of a real 13th pension, the approval of a new minimum wage machine to the reform of the appraisal activity. In addition, several launched projects that contributed to the increase in employment in Slovakia. This is how department head Erik Tomáš (Hlas-SD) evaluated the year of activity of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications for TASR.
“It was possible to fulfill a lot from the program statement of the government, but several laws and changes were also adopted outside of it,” said Tomas. One of the key changes was, for example, the approval of the 13th pension in the amount of the average pension or the adoption of a new machine for the minimum wage.
An amendment to the Act on Social Services was also adopted, which, according to Tomáš, brings significant help to dependent people. Within it, canceled the reduction of care allowances based on the dependent person’s income, the supplement to the care allowance for parents who care for disabled children was increased and the relief service was made more efficient.
Another fundamental change this year was the reform of the appraisal activity, which also fulfilled a milestone from the recovery plan. It will be valid from September next year, while under the new system, a disabled person will receive one comprehensive assessmenton the basis of which the right to compensation allowance and social service is determined.
Tomáš highlighted that all the department’s key laws were passed by a constitutional majority in the parliamentwhich, according to him, means that they were well prepared and that these topics also have a broad impact on society.
Unemployment was also a priority topic at the MPSVR this yearwhile in October it was possible to achieve the historically lowest unemployment in Slovakia since 1993. On the other hand, the head of the department pointed out that unemployment is not evenly distributed throughout Slovakia, while currently there are still 162,000 unemployed people and of that available 140,000, i.e. those who can start work immediately.
The department also managed to reduce unemployment through various European fund programs or projects from state funds. These were, for example, financial incentives, skills for the labor market or retraining and education courses, thanks to which almost 8,000 new jobs were created and 40,000 people were prepared for the labor market.
