Poor families with children, Albania and Turkey with the lowest support in Europe

2024-05-30 09:43:00, Aktualitet CNA

Poor families with children, Albania and Turkey with the lowest support in

Illustrative photo

Albania ranks last in Europe together with Turkey for financial support for families in need (they include, in addition to health care, the costs of pregnancy, birth and adoption, childcare and care for other family members).

According to Eurostat data in 2021, EU countries spent an average of €777 per person on family benefits, up from €561 in 2011.

While Albania spent only 45 euros per capita for needy families with children in 2021, ranking second to last after Turkey with 37 euros per capita.

The countries with the highest spending on family benefits per person in 2021 were Luxembourg (€3,611), Denmark (€1,858) and Germany (€1,575). The countries with the lowest expenses were Bulgaria (161 euros), Greece (243 euros) and Romania (244 euros).

In the EU, family benefits represented 8.3% of total expenditure on social protection benefits in 2021. In percentage terms Poland had the highest expenditure (15% of total social benefits), Luxembourg (14.8%) and Estonia (12.8%) recorded the highest percentages of spending on family benefits.

Meanwhile, the lowest percentages were in Italy (4.1%), the Netherlands (4.6%) and Cyprus (4.7%). Financial support for poor families with children is one of the items of social protection. But Albania also offers low financial protection for the needy population compared to other European countries.

Eurostat data showed that the 27 EU member states spent 39.2 percent of their budget on social protection in 2022, while Albania spent only 30 percent of the budget in the same year.

The sector with the highest weight in budget expenditures both in the EU and in Albania is 'Social protection', with 30 percent of general public expenditures in 2022. This item is dominated by expenditures for the pension fund as well as programs to support families and individuals in need (economic assistance and disability).

But Albania allocates from its budget for this item about 9.2 percentage points of funds less than the European Union.

International financial institutions have advised the Albanian government to increase investments in human capital, suggesting more funds for education, health and social protection.

In the conditions of population aging, declining birth rates and high emigration, the country is facing urgent needs for care, especially for the elderly. Albania has not set up any infrastructure for the care of the third age as the country is facing the aging of the birth boom in the 1960s-70s./Monitor