UPPER LIMIT OF MATERNITY BENEFIT UNCHANGED

According to the budget bill for 2005 the upper limit of the maternity benefit remains unchanged, so the parents will not receive more than gross HUF 83 thousand for the forth year now. The maternity benefit may not surpass the earlier average salary of the parents and it is taxed.

The allowance was restored after the so-called ’Bokros package’ of restrictions cancelled in 2000 when the sum was set as the double of the minimal wage. A proposal by Fidesz would raise the sum to the double of the present minimal wage and they would extend it to three years instead of the present two but the government refuses the proposal referring to the great burdens of the budget though every tenth person on maternity benefit would be affected by the raise.


Translated by Péter Szentmihályi Szabó