According to the Central Statistics Office's report published yesterday, the number of births in February increased by 7.7 percent compared to the second month of last year. The data also reveal that there were 140 percent more marriages in February this year – a total of 2,631 – than in the same month in 2019.
Katalin Novák, State Secretary for Family and Youth Affairs at the Ministry of Human Capacities, drew attention to the fact that the number of marriages has been steadily rising since 2010 and the number of couples who want to have children is growing, too.
“I hope that despite the epidemic, these positive trends will persist in the long run and people will not give up on starting a family and having children,” Novák said, adding that “we want to help with this by maintaining an extremely diverse support system, and we are proud to not stop helping families during the current situation.”
Regarding the growing unemployment rate due to the coronavirus crisis, the state secretary said that “we are working to ensure that the emerging unemployment won’t be long-term and that those who are losing their jobs can return to work soon. We will create as many jobs as are lost due to the epidemic.”
“We have decided that the current employment period will be included in the certified employment required for each family support scheme. If someone has only had a few months to prove a sufficient length of employment and is now temporarily out of a job, they do not have to worry that the count will restart; the current period of unemployment will be part of the certified months,” she said.
Katalin Novák also reported that the announced budget reform does not directly affect family benefits. “The government is not taking away any family support; in fact, we’re providing extra resources for families.”