Hungarians stand up for family-friendly governance
The majority of Hungarians are satisfied with the family-friendly policy of the last 12 years and support it’s continuation in the future, according to the representative research of the Maria Kopp Institute for Demography and Families (KINCS). For more than a decade, the government has been continuously expanding the family support system and providing unprecedented assistance to families. According to the survey conducted in late February and early March, all of the most important family-friendly measures contribute to improving the financial situation of families.
In 2010, a family-friendly turn took place. The government is particularly supportive of families, parents, children, the elderly and young people. In its research, KINCS examined the social acceptance of the family policy measures of the past 12 years.
According to the results of the survey, 7 out of 10 (72%) are familiar with the government's family policy measures and the majority (68%) are satisfied with family-friendly governance. Those most affected, i.e. those raising children, including those receiving childcare benefits, are even more satisfied with family-friendly measures.
The respondents believe that the current family policy helps families with children (76%), especially large families (82%) and couples planning to have children (73%). The majority of people also agree that family policy over the past 12 years has greatly helped the elderly, pensioners (60%) and young people (59%) alike.
Three quarters of the people appreciate the measures representing the interests of families, and the same number believe that family support has improved the desire of having children and getting married in Hungary. According to two-thirds of them, the past 12 years have brought progress to families unseen so far in Hungary. The majority (62%) also agreed that the success of the conservative government is well demonstrated by the improvement of the living standards of Hungarian families.
For the future, 82% said that the current system of family support should be upheld, and 86% even wanted it to expand further. Most of the participants in the survey, 9 out of 10, agreed with the statement that young people under the age of 30 should be more supported in starting a family.
According to the participants of the survey, each and every of the most important family-friendly measure contributes to making it easier to have and raise children in Hungary. According to them this is mostly helped by the baby-expecting subsidy (93%), but family tax allowance (92%), home-creation allowances (89%), free textbooks (89%) and discounted meals for children (92%) are considered equally important and useful. According to eight out of ten respondents, the car purchase support for large families, family-friendly employment opportunities, the establishment of more nurseries and kindergartens, as well as the amount of increased childcare benefits are also of great help to families with children.
At the request of the extent to which a measure helps in their personal life, those concerned have placed the personal income tax refund and the family tax allowance in the first place (85%). There is significant support for the elderly through the reversal of the 13th month's pension (78%) and for those under 25 years of age through the abolition of the personal income tax (76%). Regarding their own lives, the majority of people also considered the reduction of utility prizes (77%), the freezing of gasoline prices (74%) and the fixing of basic food prices (57%) to be important reliefs.
Family comes first in Hungary. The government is particularly supportive of families, parents, children, the elderly and young people. Hungarian people appreciate these actions, are satisfied with the measures introduced by the family-friendly governance and would like to uphold and support these in the future.
Methodology: The national representative survey was conducted by telephone interviewing 1000 people among the adult population between 16-23 February 2022.
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