The reduction of the Population Support Fund led to the appearance of salary arrears in the case of personal assistants, Minister of Labor and Social Protection Alexei Buzu explained after over 2,600 assistants who look after persons with severe disabilities didn’t get paid on time. The official said that owing to the diminution of the airport tax and portability tax, the amounts collected into the Population Support Fund decreased and a part of the personal assistants haven’t received their salaries since April, IPN reports.

The minister said that a part of the personal assistants in the country get their pays from the Population Support Fund. The reduction in the number of passengers at the Chisinau International Airport and the diminution of the tax paid by mobile phone operators led to a decrease in the amounts collected into this Fund.

“In the Republic of Moldova, we have approximately 7,200 personal assistants. These offer support to persons with severe disabilities. A part of these assistants are remunerated with money from the state budget. Money is transferred from the state budget to the budgets of the district authorities and the district authorities pay these salaries. Another part, approximately 2,600 personal assistants get paid from the Social Population Support Fund, which includes payments in the form of the airport tax and the portability tax. The amounts collected into this Fund have decreased over the past two years. The costs of this Fund are fixed ones, like the salaries of personal assistants. The collected amounts were lower than it was projected as the number of passengers declined and the portability tax was decreased,” Alexei Buzu stated in the program “Résumé” on RliveTV channel.

The minister noted that a part of the blame for the salary arrears is borne by the district councils that delayed the amendment of local budgets.

“We made effort to identify resources. Following the June amendment, we planned 86 million lei for covering this deficit. After the budget was rectified, the district councils were to also amend the district budget so as to accept these resources. Some of the district councils moved faster and the salaries there will be paid. A part of the districts identified internal funds and continued paying the salaries on time, while we have tried to identify solutions. We are amending the legislation. All the personal assistants as from 2024 will be financed with state budget funds. Respectively, such situations will not repeat,” stated Alexei Buzu.

The personal assistants in Moldova get a salary of 3,000 to 4,000 lei.