WARSAW, Poland (LifeSiteNews) — The Polish government plans to build on efforts to promote families and childbearing in 2022.
Marlena Maląg, Poland’s Minister of Family and Social Policy, says that the government wants to tackle the country’s low fertility rate of 1.458 births per woman.
“Young people need to know that the state is implementing long-term, consistent, effective family-friendly policies,” she told Polsat News. “They need to know that these are not [just] incidents. We have been taking such measures for six years.”
Maląg told Polish news channel Polsat News in December that the plans will focus on “supporting families” rather than migration.
“[It] will include measures to help parents combine work with family life as well as housing, care and financial incentives,” she explained.
The new policies will build on an existing set of strategies pursued by the Polish government to increase the fertility rate which has grown 2 percent since 2019.
Maląg’s office reviewed the current programs and expected expansion in a year-end review for 2021.
“In the context of the demographic challenges faced by not only Poland, but, as a rule, by all developed countries, the family-oriented policy should be an absolute priority for the government,” her office said.
“The support for families is an investment in the future of subsequent generations, in the future of all of us. We understand that, therefore, from the very beginning, we have consistently placed the family in the center of our activities.”
For example, in May 2021, the Polish national government expanded its “Family Care Capital” program to give extra, tax-free money to families that had more than one child.
Families can also take advantage of payments for their children to be “in a nursery, a children’s club, and [with] a daily care provider.”
The country also offers a larger tax deduction for families with four or more kids.
“The PIT-0 for the 4+ Families is for all parents, no matter if they work full time, or are self-employed, to raise their children together, or [if they] are single parents. The program will cover parents who have at least 4 children,” the family policy department explained.
Poland is also working on a “Demographic Strategy 2040” plan that will rely on experts and research to shape further pro-family policies.
“We are focused on the family because the family means the future,” the family ministry office concluded. “This is the best investment that will undoubtedly bring fruit in the coming years. We cannot get off this path [and] the experience of recent years has shown that we chose a good course.”
Other European countries have had success with similar strategies.
The promotion of fertility and children has helped Hungary increase its birth rate to the highest in nearly three decades.
The country, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, had a birth rate of 1.59 children per woman between January to November last year. This represents a 78% increase since 2010, when the birth rate was at 1.25.
The country provides paid childcare leave, housing allows, tax benefits for married couples and other benefits.
“We strongly believe in families, so we have done everything in the last decade to help families have children … and improve their standards of living,” Hungarian Secretary of State of the Ministry of Human Resources Bence Rétvári explained.
In recent years, there has been steady migration into Poland from Ukraine and Belarus, and, in smaller numbers, from India and the Philippines.