The objective problems and obstacles that make maternity benefits an “empty letter” are brought to the Parliament by Heraklion PASOK member of parliament, Eleni Vatsina, with her question to the ministers of Labor and Social Cohesion & Family.
Emphasizing the serious European and Greek problem of low fertility, Mrs. Vacina speaks of the government’s “punitive” behavior towards mothers regarding the benefits they are entitled to.
He even mentions the various problems that arise during the application process on behalf of the mothers for the benefits, which problems ultimately highlight the lack of flexibility of the central state and the planning “on the leg”.
As Mrs. Vacina notes “there are countless cases where the allowance is not granted for minimum marks less than the 200 required (a fact that may not be due to the employee’s fault)” and so, “Mothers are forced to submit objections to the competent EFKA Committees, even with 199 marks!”
It is noted that, “when a working woman becomes a mother for the second or even third time, it is almost self-evident that she will not be entitled to the above allowance, since if she has had her children successively at close intervals, it will be very difficult for her to complete the 200 marks, especially if take into account frequent abusive employer behavior”.
Another important issue that Eleni Vacina highlights, bringing it before the Ministers, “it is the case that the maternity allowance is not paid when the mother has completed 200 stamps in different insurance bodies” and speaks of “an unjustified restriction, especially since the National Insurance Institution is one and the same”.
He also characterizes every case as unjustified “refusal to grant maternity allowance to mothers who have any debt to the State”noting that it should be a given “that a special reserve should be established for the maternity allowance, due to its important social character”.
In any case, the member of parliament underlines that the possibility of prior settlement and/or optional netting could be granted, something that has been completely ruled out as a result mothers with debts of a few euros should not even receive an allowance!
Concluding, to her question, she speaks of “unshakable character exhibited by the State” and in the cases of mothers who do not complete the 200 required stamps but would be entitled to unemployment benefit, but paradoxically and unfairly “because they have not received maternity benefit, they do not receive unemployment benefit either”!
Addressing the Ministers, the MP from Heraklion of PASOK emphasizes that due to the particularly critical conditions faced by mothers in Greece and in the face of the need to effectively support the institution of motherhood and the family, it is necessary to take measures for “strengthening working mothers, with the establishment of maternity benefits without time or numerical conditions, otherwise with more favorable conditions for the removal of current exclusions”. It also asks the Ministers whether they will ensure that maternity benefits are irrevocable so that mothers with debts to the State are not excluded from them and whether they are going to institute “a fair system under which the mother will be protected as a priority and will receive in addition to benefits and unemployment benefits if she loses her job during or after childbirth”.
Tags: Vatsina Maternity benefits blank letter Obstacles exclusions Parliament
