Belarus has built a system to support large families. “One of the long-term measures is the family capital program. As of 1 May, Belarusbank registered almost 68,000 personal deposit accounts under this program. The sum deposited to the accounts has neared $680 million. The program has had a good impact on the country's demographics as the number of families with three and more children has increased,” Valery Kovalkov noted.
The large-scale family capital program to provide long-term support for large families was launched in 2015. One-time cashless transfer of $10,000 is given to a family upon the birth of the third and subsequent children. The program was supposed to expire on 31 December 2019, but during the State of the Nation Address the Belarus president gave an instruction to extend the program for another five years. Aleksandr Lukashenko also instructed to reform the family capital program: review the period after which families get access to money and expand the list of needs families can use it for. Relevant amendments to the program are currently in work.
So far, family capital becomes available once a child turns 18. The money can be used to improve housing conditions, get education, social services and healthcare services, or be deposited to a mother's pension account. However, Belarus' Healthcare Ministry compiled a list of conditions which allow for the use of money ahead of the stated period, for example, to pay for healthcare services in healthcare institutions.
It is expected that the amended program will give large families the right to use family capital earlier to build housing as this is the most pressing issue for families, according to sociological surveys.
Written by minsk-region.gov.by