The Party “Action and Solidarity” (PAS) said that following the government’s decision to increase social allowances for a number of categories of people, the largest rise is of 100.6 lei, while the lowest one is of only 7 lei, IPN reports.

In a press release, the party said the increased benefits cover 35% of the basic necessities of the recipients of welfare in the best case. About 12,000 children with disabilities will get benefits by 100.6 lei higher (raised from 502.99 to 603.6 lei), while 7,000 elderly people will benefit from the rise of 7 lei (from 142 to 149.2 lei). Another 7,000 persons with disabilities will benefit from an increase of 18 lei (from 178 to 196 lei).

“We cannot understand how one can make triumphalist statements about this decision when the increased benefits do not cover more than 35% of the bare essentials,” said Sergiu Litvinenco, a member of the PAS Standing National Bureau.

Under the decision approved by the Cabinet on February 7, the state social allowance for persons with childhood disabilities (27,300 persons) and for children with disabilities (12,000) will be increased by 20%. The state social allowances for persons with disabilities (10,500) and for children who lost the maintaining persons (5,200) will grow by 10%. The state social allowances for elderly people (7,800) and the care and supervision allowances (15,200) will be raised by 5%.

The increased allowances will be paid as from April 1, 2018. In the case of persons with childhood disabilities and children with disabilities, recalculations will be done for the first three months of the year so that the allowances are raised from January 1.