Meeting to discuss draft decree on social support of some categories of citizens

Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko held a meeting to discuss a draft decree on the social support of some categories of citizens on 12 May.

The meeting at the Palace of Independence was attended by members of the government and senior officials of the Belarus President Administration.

“We will support those citizens who need support today,” the head of state emphasized.

At the same time, the president remarked that if a person had lost a job there are still many job offers on the market, including in Minsk. A person can find a different job and go through this complicated time in a calm way, he believes.

In his words, Belarus has chosen a method of fighting against the spread of coronavirus infection aimed at protecting people’s lives and health and continuing economic activities in the country. “We did not close any enterprises, any restaurants, any cinemas. We did not close anything, and did not restrain anyone. We just warned people that they should take care of themselves,” the president said.

This approach allows people to work and to look for new job opportunities if necessary. “In this difficult time, when the whole world does not work, when the economy does no work (it is good that they finally started to reopen production facilities in the west, in Russia, in China), when the economy is not operating at full capacity, it is very important for us to preserve workforce,” the Belarusian leader emphasized. “Firing workers is inadmissible. We should do our best to preserve workforce. This is an intransigent demand of mine.”

Labor and Social Security Minister Irina Kostevich told reporters after the meeting that in accordance with the draft decree support will be provided to such categories of citizens as families with many children, people with disabilities and parents of children with disabilities. The participants of the meeting also discussed additional measures of support, including pension coverage, social security and medical help.

In particular, a proposal was made to improve approaches to the provision of the targeted state support to families with many children. “The state is currently providing support to people whose income is below the subsistent rate. Families with many children account for 60% of such support recipients,” the minister explained. “The analysis showed that the mechanism needs improvement. We submitted proposals to the president, and he supported those approaches.”