“The Cabinet supports families in many different ways and families are considered the fundamental elements of society”, Minister of State for Government Communication Bence Tuzson declared.

Speaking on M1 Hungarian television’s Wednesday morning current affairs programme, Mr. Tuzson said a fundamental change occurred in 2010 because the socialists used to think in terms of individuals, whereas we regard supporting families with children as important”.

“This is precisely why the tax allowance for families with two children is being doubled, in four phases, to 40 thousand forints-a-month by 2019. The tax allowance for families with two children will increase to 30 thousand forints/month beginning on 1 January 2017. The increase in the tax allowance effects more that 350 thousand families, who will ultimately be able to spend an extra 240 thousand forints annually on their children”, he explained.

The Minister of State announced that next year 1500 billion forints (EUR 4.8bn) will be spent on families in various forms such as tax allowances, the first home programme, providing meals for children and free school textbooks.

He said it was a major achievement that the average number of children per family had increased to 1.44 from the previous level of 1.2.

On Kossuth Radio’s “180 Minutes” program on Wednesday, Mr. Tuzson said the average pensioner would be receiving a total of 24 thousand forint more next year. Pensions will be increasing by 1.6 percent in 2017, instead of the originally planned 0.9 percent.

Every pensioner will also be receiving a 10 thousand forint Erzsébet voucher this year from the fiscal surplus, hopefully before Christmas. This is a gesture, an expression of respect towards pensioners.

(MTI, Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister)