In the 2020 budget there will be more money – two and a half times more than in 2010 – not only for supporting young people, but equally for health care, education and pensions, the Parliamentary State Secretary of the Ministry of Human Capacities said at a press conference held on Tuesday in Budapest.

Bence Rétvári said next year there will be HUF 184 billion more for health care than this year. Pay rises account for the largest item, amounting to HUF 82 billion, as next year the salaries of health care specialists will increase both in January and in November. Nurses will first receive a 14 per cent pay rise, to be followed by a 20 per cent one, he observed.

The pay rise of health care workers is part of a longer process as in the past four years salaries in health care have increased by 64 per cent, the State Secretary said.

He said pay rises were also perceivable in the case of physicians; their salaries have increased by HUF 207,000.

The 2020 budget earmarks two and a half times more for expenditures of this type in health care compared with 2010, while up to 2022 there will be further pay rises for nurses, Mr Rétvári stated.

He said that thanks to the excess funding provided for the sector since 2010 within the budget and as part of calls for proposals, 91 hospitals have been refurbished partially or fully, 54 surgeries and 104 ambulance stations have been renovated, 23 new surgeries and 31 new ambulance stations have been built, and they have also launched the Healthy Budapest Programme.

There will further be substantially more for education, HUF 645 billion more than in 2010. Next year, this sector, too, will have tens of billions of forints more to work with, the State Secretary said.

He recalled that they had used the excess funds of the past few years primarily for pay rises. The salaries of teachers have increased by 50 per cent; in the first three stages, all salaries have increased at a standard rate, while in the last stage schools are able to differentiate on the basis of the quality of work completed.

Some 10,000 teachers have obtained the ‘master teacher’ degree which can result in a pay rise of up to HUF 70,000.

Mr Rétvári indicated that, with the amendment of the public education law, they have created the foundations for pay rises for school principals. The rate of the pay rise will vary from individual to individual, they have yet to determine the relevant criteria, but as expected earnings will increase depending on both the size and results of the given institution.

Next year’s budget includes the funds that are necessary for these pay rises, the State Secretary said.

The 2020 budget further stipulates that if the performance of the economy allows, pensioners should receive a pension premium, he said. A pension premium was first paid in 2017, up to a maximum amount of HUF 12,000, while in 2018 pensioners could receive up to HUF 18,000, he said.

The 2020 budget allocates HUF 20 billion for the pension premium so that the elderly should also have a share in the economy’s excess performance, Mr Rétvári highlighted.

(Ministry of Human Capacities/MTI)