New subsidies to help Hungarian families from autumn
From this autumn, new subsidies will provide significant help to Hungarian families. Based on the previous announcements of the Ministry of Culture and Innovation, the nursery fee subsidy can be applied for from 2 September, which can be used by parents in all institutions and services providing nursery care regardless of the maintaining organisation. In addition, from 1 October, it will be easier for specially taxed self-employed to use certain state-supported loan schemes (CSOK Plus, Village CSOK loan, baby expecting subsidy). Measures adapted to the new needs will further help tens of thousands of families.
With the aim of supporting the return of parents with young children to the labor market, financed from the EFOP_Plusz-6.3.1-23-2024 project, the Hungarian State Treasury provides a non-refundable subsidy of 50,000 HUF per month, and in some cases, 65,000 HUF in single-parent families, to parents returning to work whose children receive nursery care or daycare. In special cases, the subsidy can be applied for retroactively, from 1 April 2023. The reimbursement of the nursery fee, which can be requested for more than one child, is eligible for parents living in rural areas whose children attend nursery, mini-nursery, family or workplace nursery or receive daycare. For the first time, parents whose children attend a municipal nursery can also apply for the subsidy.
In Hungary, nursery care is now provided in every third settlement, which has a positive effect on the employment chances of parents with young children. According to KINCS' previous research examining the nursery selection criteria of mothers with young children, there is a growing need to place children in nursery schools due to mothers re-entering the labor market. Fifty percent of the mothers participating in the study said that they want to use nursery care between the ages of 1 and 2 of their child, and 45 percent want to use it after the age of two of their child in order to return to work. The new measure responds to their needs, whereby the state provides significant assistance to working parents.
In order to support families planning to have children or raising children, the government will also introduce a new measure for self-employed and primary agricultural producers choosing a special form of taxation from 1 October, which will make it easier to use the CSOK Plus, the Village CSOK loan and the baby expecting subsidy. The aim of the facilitation is to make these options more accessible to those self-employed. In their case, banks previously considered only 10-20 percent of their revenue as income during the credit assessment, but now at least 50 percent of their revenue will be required to be recognized as income. The amendment also allows those concerned – supplemented by sole proprietorships – to have a one-year social security relationship instead of the two and three years expected so far to take up the mentioned state-sponsored loans. In this way, even more families will be able to access popular measures to help them start a family, the Village CSOK loan, the CSOK Plus or the baby expecting subsidy.
The new measures are a great example of the Government always adapting the elements of the family support system to the actual needs of families. Hungarian family policy responds flexibly to the expectations of families having or raising children. Families have been the first in Hungary for 14 years now.
