There are two incentives in particular. Discount on social insurance for families with two or more children. The People’s Party also proposes an increase in the tax credit per child by up to 200 crowns per month. In contrast, the childless should pay more in taxes if they do not have children.
“We clearly base the tax rebates on the programmatic statement of the government, which is why I clearly say that I stand behind it and will work hard in the negotiations to ensure that it prevails. Discounts in the area of insurance premiums are something we have thought about and we will bring something new to the negotiations. We’ll see what the reaction will be,” summed up Marian Jurečka, chairman of the KDU-ČSL and Minister of Labor and Social Affairs.
However, he received feedback from his coalition colleagues quickly: They vehemently publicly objected to the idea of increasing social insurance for the childless.
Experts working with families, on the other hand, describe that the Lidovecko plan will ultimately help larger families, but will not encourage hesitant parents to have more children.
“It is again a discount that single families will take advantage of more often, single parents have fewer children on average,” reflects Eliška Kodyšová, director of the association Aperio – Society for Healthy Parenting, on the plan of the proposed support. Behind the introduced modifications of the people, he sees above all the support of complete families. And even the richer ones.
“People with a lower income will not benefit at all from the tax discount, they pay almost no taxes now,” he points out and emphasizes that it would, on the contrary, help to free up the housing market. He also adds experience from Norway, where pre-school capacities should be available to everyone, while in the Czech Republic, only wealthier families can afford a children’s group, replacing the lack of kindergartens.
The pro-family climate can affect birth rates
People’s representatives presented to the public three graduated proposals to increase the tax credit for a child. The first variant increases the monthly discount by 100 crowns, the second by 150 crowns and the highest by 200 crowns. They argue that with inflation the value of the discount decreases over time.
“Rebates remain at a fixed number in the law, so the share compared to the average wage is decreasing,” explained KDU-ČSL MP Michael Kohajda during the presentation.
They then propose to reduce social insurance from the rate of 7.1 percent for parents with two children to 6.1 percent and for those with three or more children to 5.1 percent, but only for the time they are raising the children. They offset the rate reduction in the proposal by increasing it to 9.1 percent for childless people over the age of 35.
“It’s our response to wanting to support families, we’re aware they’ve been hit by inflation. We are aware that it is not easy to have a family, there are complexities,” comments Benjamin Činčila, member of the KDU-ČSL and head of the analysis department at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.
Experts providing support to families generally agree that there are proposals aimed at supporting families.
“Just expressing that it’s fine to have two or three children is important in this atmosphere,” says Marie Macounová, head of the Prague Family Center.
“What can affect the birth rate is the pro-family climate,” emphasizes Marie Oujezdská, director of the National Center for the Family.
Norwegian way? Municipalities lend equipment to families for free
The director of the Aperio association – Society for Healthy Parenting, Eliška Kodyšová, was coincidentally caught up in Norway’s concept of supporting families by people’s proposals.
“It is based on the fact that the state does not give money directly to families, but gives it to communities that provide services for families,” says the director of the Aperio association.
People’s deputy Michael Kohajda calculated that raising a child in the Czech Republic costs roughly four million crowns. In practice, according to Kodyšová, the Norwegians follow the path of reducing these costs.
“There are, for example, rental shops for sports equipment, bicycles, skis, ski boots and equipment for tramping for free. It is within the municipalities. And they have money for that. There is no need for families to purchase equipment as the municipality will provide it. It seems to me like a slightly happier model of family support, which is used by more people,” mentions Eliška Kodyšová.
And he adds that the international comparison of the OECD shows that the Czech Republic provides significantly more tax rebates and, conversely, significantly less support for services.
Marie Oujezdská from the National Center for the Family strongly supports insurance premium discounts. “Insurance premium discounts are one of the best pro-family policy measures. I am deeply convinced of that. Families are left with the money they earned. At the same time, the state shows that raising children is an investment. You put something into the children and they then give it to society,” he says.
Marie Macounová from the Family Center Prague describes that parents need “essential certainty” that it is right to have more children. They do not make decisions based on experience primarily based on discounts or concessions.
“The availability of housing, for example, plays a far greater role. When you already have three children, the limit of how much you can get a mortgage is completely different than when you have none,” the head of the family center mentions.
“No”, came from the coalition for taxing the childless
Politicians from the coalition parties strongly opposed the idea of increasing social contributions for the childless.
“Go with modifying the behavior of others somewhere where they are curious about it,” said Barbora Urbanová from the STAN movement on the X platform.
“This government approves tools that help parents. But in an effort to increase the birth rate, we should definitely not slide into punishing those who cannot or do not want to become parents,” said Martina Ochodnická, MP TOP 09, on the same platform, adding that her party does not support punishing the childless.
The chairman of the Pirates, Ivan Bartoš, also published a clear no, according to which it is also about punishing the childless, and describes that it is about thousands and thousands of people who cannot or do not want to have children, and the state should not have a say in their decisions.
“Of course, we will deal with it in the government and we will do everything to ensure that this idea remains only in the archive of our humanist colleagues. Because freedom of choice is not affected,” said Bartoš.
The chairman of the KDU-ČSL later said that the reaction of some of his colleagues was calmly expressed in the government or perhaps in the dressing room with a reference to the videos of the chairman of the Starosts, Vít Rakušan.
