ATHENS – Parents in Greece who have to work and can’t find limited spaces in kindergartens or day care centers will be eligible for 500-euro ($532.85) vouchers to hire babysitters to watch their children.
That’s under a program being prepared by the Greek Ministry of the Family that was formed as a separate entity in 2022 by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ New Democracy government to focus on households with children.
The measure is related to the shortage of places in kindergartens, Bulgaria’s BNR reported, said Novinite. The program provides daily care for every child up to preschool age, provided the parents work full-time.
If the mother works part-time, then she can receive 300 euros ($320) to hire a sitter during the hours she is busy. Most of the applicants are pensioners with low incomes, the Greek ministry also reported.
When he talked about the idea in 2022 in an interview with SKAI TV, Mitsotakis said the new ministry was established “to support specific policies for families and promote equality at work between men and women.”.
He added that, “When I met with those with many children, they told me something that we had also realized, which is why we had proposed it a long time ago. Who is our interlocutor? … we want an independent ministry, which can unify all issues related to family policy.”
He added that, “We need to have a decision-making center for issues that have to do with both family policy issues and welfare policy issues, that is, social support and equality,” the government also giving 2000 euro ($2131) bonuses for births.
He also talked about proposals such as “neighborhood babysitters” to make it easier for parents to handle costs and childcare difficulties.
source: thenationalherald.com
