Czech welfare reform makes it out of committee with changes, some Roma supported it at press conference with Labor Minister, others warn its effects will be risky

The bill was supported by all 19 of the Committee members present, both from the governing coalition and the opposition. According to the bill, the housing contribution and the housing subsidy benefits, the subsistence contribution benefit, and the per-child contribution benefit would be replaced as of July with a single benefit.

Just one application for benefits would be submitted after July. The assets and income of the applicants would also be assessed in more detail to see if they are eligible to receive money from the state.

The amount of money received could also be increased by a bonus for working. The Committee decided on 19 proposed changes to the law on the new state social aid benefit and on six other changes to the implementing regulations.

The Committee supported 10 of the proposed changes, half of them unanimously. It also recommended the lower house adopt the reform with those 10 adjustments.

If the adjustments are adopted, the subsistence minimum could, therefore, be raised for an adult living alone from CZK 4860 [EUR 193] to CZK 5500 [EUR 218]. For the first adult member of a household with multiple members it could increase from CZK 4470 [EUR 180] to CZK 5000 [EUR 200].

On the other hand, the second adult member of a household with multiple members could see a decrease in the subsistence benefit to which they would be entitled from CZK 4040 [EUR 160] to CZK 3750 [150]. The new welfare benefit would therefore be higher for smaller households so as to better reflect their situation.

This proposed increase to the subsistence minimum level would also be reflected in the humanitarian benefit, foster parenting benefit, and others. It could increase the state’s expenditure by CZK 2.2 billion [EUR 87 million].

The Committee also recommended that breaking the welfare rules should be punished by removing the job-seeker from the Labor Office list for three months instead of six, extending the disbursal of substitute alimony to a period of six years, adjusting employers’ reporting obligations, providing a work bonus to parents taking parental leave, including widowers and widows among the category of vulnerable persons, or adjusting the limit on the possible savings an applicant can hold in order to qualify for welfare. Czech Labor and Social Affairs Minister Marian Jurečka (Christian Democrats – KDU-ČSL) reiterated during the Committee session that one-third of welfare recipients will see no change in the amount of money they receive after the reforms, one-third will receive more money, and one-third will receive less.

However, thanks to combining the benefits into one, more people should be able to access support who have not yet drawn on it from the state because they have not applied for some of the available benefits to date, Jurečka said. He added that the aim of the benefits is to motivate people to want to address their unfavorable situations.

“With this change, we want to create an active, pro-client approach to these households, to have a plan that will move them forward. Our sincere ambition is to work positively with our clients. I am glad this follows on from the fine-tuning of the parameters of the Housing Support Act. We are heading in the right direction. The system as a whole will then be logical,” the minister said.

René Baláž: Roma welcome this reform, we don’t want to just be welfare recipients

The press conference after the Committee session also featured Romani community members who support the amendment to the law. René Baláž of the Nová Vize 2020 [New Vision 2020] initiative expressed appreciation for the fact that the change to the welfare benefits system could also be beneficial to Romani people.

“Our community wants to actively contribute, we do not want to just be welfare recipients anymore, we want to find appropriate employment. This law seems motivating to us because it will encourage people to look for work,” Baláž said.

Lubomír Obst from the Unie Romů – Restart plus [Romani Union – Restart Plus] organization made similar remarks. “I fully agree with the minister’s proposal. I’m glad it can help fight poverty and that it addresses the question of housing in undignified conditions.”

Jurečka rejected the idea that the presence of the Romani community members at the press conference was linking welfare exclusively with the Roma. “When drafting the law we discussed it with different representatives, including from the Romani minority. We know trafficking in poverty is a burning problem that affects certain localities and quite frequently it impacts Romani people, but it decidedly does not just affect them. The system must be correctly designed for everybody irrespective of their ethnicity,” the minister said.

The minister further reminded journalists that there are many successful entrepreneurs from the Romani community. “I’ve been visiting the barber shop of a Romani man who votes for me in Olomouc for years. It works quite brilliantly,” Jurečka said.

Baláž told journalists the proposed amendment to the law is not discriminatory: “This is not just about Romani people, but about society as a whole and about the socially vulnerable. We are here precisely because we see this as not just about the Roma. This law is fair to everybody.”

Cyril Koky: Welfare reform will not solve trafficking in poverty

In response to the press conference, a different perspective on the issue of the proposed welfare reform was expressed by Cyril Koky, the Central Bohemian Regional Coordinator for Ethnic Minorities. Although he is critical in the debate on this issue, he welcomes the introduction of a unified “superbenefit”.

“I think this is a step in the right direction. I believe Labor Office staffers will be prepared and will manage to realize this transformation,” Koky told news server Romea.cz.

At the same time, however, he warned that the reform in and of itself will not resolve the problem of trafficking in poverty. “Trafficking in poverty cannot be resolved by stopping the payment of welfare to residential hotel tenants or reducing the amount of welfare for such persons, because those people have nowhere else to go today. The idea that people live in residential hotels because they want to is absurd. Many people are excluded from the standard housing market because landlords perceive them to be too risky – for instance, families with many children, Romani people, single mothers, or people who are under collections proceedings,” Koky explained.

According to Koky, it is necessary to offer alternative solutions to members of vulnerable groups. “If we take this opportunity away from them without offering them any other alternative, the consequences could be catastrophic,” he warned, adding that changing the welfare benefit system is not a new subject and has repeatedly resurfaced in political debate over the years.

“Changing or revising the welfare system is nothing new and no small number of politicians have always been advocating for it because everybody believes the ‘work-shy’ are Roma who are abusing welfare en masse. This subject resurfaces in almost every election. Politicians do their best to score points with it and people believe more and more that it’s problem number one,” Koky told Romea.cz.

Koky added that he believes Minister Jurečka has included all the important comments into his draft of the amendment to the welfare system. “If the amendment significantly endangers a vulnerable group of people, then I assume the minister will take it like a man and resign,” Koky said.

Opposition lawmakers on the Committee praised the effort there to reach a consensus on adjustments to the bill. “That does not frequently happen in the Committee, I would like to thank the Labor Ministry on behalf of legislators in the opposition. We met more than once to discuss both this law and the Labor Code,” Committee Vice-Chair Jana Pastuchová (Association of Dissatisified Citizens – ANO) said.

Committee Vice-Chair Lucie Šafránková of the “Freedom and Direct Democracy” (SPD) party expressed the same sentiment. The lawmakers announced that they want to draft more proposals for adjustments.

Experts warn: Welfare reform could worsen the situation of low-income workers

Experts say the welfare reform as drafted might worsen the situation of low-income workers. It could also negatively impact families with young children, single people living in big cities, or single mothers with one child.

Due to the proposed change to the housing support benefits, such households could receive several thousands of crowns a month less than they do today, an amount that might not even be enough on which to live. Experts announced their findings in January in an analysis by the Center for Social Issues SPOT and the Platform for Social Housing.

According to these experts, the new welfare benefit is inappropriately set up, its calculation is complex, it will not motivate people to raise their income and pay their debts, and it could contribute to expanding impoverished neighborhoods. “We have repeatedly warned Minister Marian Jurečka, on the basis of our analysis of this bill, of the risks which are related to his draft reforms. We have also put together a list of things which need to be fixed so the welfare reform will work well and will not further endanger those who are already the most at risk. Some things on our list were actually added to the bill, but in the bigger picture they were just small changes and the big problems are still there,” the Platform for Social Housing said in a statement.

The bill has also been criticized in the past by Public Defender of Rights Stanislav Křeček. He said the law must be changed so that it will not divide society and be accepted “without conflict”.

According to the Public Defender of Rights, the definition of vulnerable groups should be adjusted and the conditioning of the housing and per-child benefits on adult household members working should be either removed altogether or softened, as it could end up before the Constitutional Court.

The Labor Minister has already admitted that the reform could be postponed by three months to give more time to discuss it. That would mean it would not start until October.

Jurečka told the Czech News Agency (ČTK) that if the next discussion in the Chamber of Deputies goes smoothly, the original July deadline could still apply.