SaS: Government Should Present Specific Measures to Assist Single Parents

Bratislava, February 26 (TASR) - The state should focus on helping single-parent households and defining them in law this year, opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party leader Branislav Groehling and MP Martina Bajo Holeckova (SaS) stated on Wednesday, criticising the government for doing nothing for these households so far, while raising taxes and reducing tax bonuses instead. SaS argued that Labour Minister Erik Tomas (Voice-SD) has not yet proposed any real legislation to assist single parents. "According to the 'One Parent' NGO, which helps such families, nearly 900,000 people live in single-parent households in Slovakia. The vast majority of these households — more than 80 percent — are single mothers with dependent children," stated Bajo Holeckova. If Tomas doesn't present any legislative proposals to assist single parents at the upcoming parliamentary session in March, the whole process will be delayed until June, stated Bajo Holeckova, adding that these families will spend six months paying higher taxes and falling deeper into poverty. She stressed that it will then be much more difficult to reintegrate them into normal life. "The biggest problem with single-parent households is that they aren't yet defined in law, meaning that we can't provide targeted help to them. This is why, for example, the reported numbers vary, with some stating 500,000 people, while others mention 860,000. Therefore, we need to address the basic issue, which is to define a single-parent household in law, so that we can identify them and effectively help them by implementing specific measures for these households," clarified Bajo Holeckova. A large proportion of single-parent households consists of mothers with children who struggle to find a job because the conditions in Slovakia don't allow them to make use of options such as part-time jobs or extended family care leave, as they are the sole care-givers for their children. According to opposition MPs, a single-parent household should be defined as a household in which a mother, father, or substitute parent is the sole care-giver for the children. lin/df