Sick leave payment changes will enable to save 30m lei

17.01.2012 06:35
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A sum of about 30 million lei will be saved in the 2012 state social insurance budget following amendments made to the mechanism for paying allowances for temporary incapacity for work, said Minister of Labor, Social Protection and Family Valentina Buliga, Info-Prim Neo reports. “The law whereby the employers are obliged to pay allowances for three days of sick leave to employees, instead of one as until now, was submitted to Parliament the second time. The first time it was proposed that the employer should pay for seven days of sick leave, but then we were before legislative elections and the lawmakers did not risk passing the bill,” Valentina Buliga said in a news conference. According to the minister, these changes were essential as there were cases when the economic entities resolved the economic and technical employment problems through the agency of the state budget, using different schemes. In the same news conference, the minister said that the revenues of the 2012 state social insurance budget total about 10 billion lei, up 7.2% compared with the revenues planned for 2011. The state social insurance contributions remain the main component of the incomes. They will represent over 73% of the total collections into the budget. The contribution remained 29%, 23% of which is paid by the employer, while 6% by the employee. The spending on all kinds of pensions this year will be by 9% higher following the rise of almost 8% in pensions and in the number of persons who reach retirement. As many as 7 400 persons will retire this year. About 632 433 persons receive pensions at present. The old age pensions after April 1 will rise by 71.64 lei on average. The childcare allowance on January 1 was increased by 300 lei to 2 300 lei at the birth of the first child and 2 600 lei for the next children. Over 80% of the budget is spent on pensions and allowances, while the rest on the costs incurred by the institutions managed by the Ministry of Labor, Social Protection and Family.