Eurofound's EU PolicyWatch collates information on the responses of government and social partners to the COVID-19 crisis, the war in Ukraine, rising inflation, as well as gathering examples of company practices aimed at mitigating the social and economic impacts.
Factsheet for measure CY-2022-37/3026 – measures in Cyprus
Country | Cyprus , applies nationwide |
Time period | Temporary, 07 September 2022 – 30 September 2022 |
Context | War in Ukraine |
Type | Other initiatives or policies |
Category |
N/A
– Increasing income in general |
Author | Loucas Antoniou (INEK) and Eurofound |
Measure added | 01 February 2023 (updated 21 March 2023) |
With the start of the new academic year and after the proposal of the Deputy Minister of Social Welfare, the Cabinet announced an emergency measure on 7 September 2022 for children 4 to 18 years of age. The decision was based on the need to adopt supporting measures targeting the groups of the population – households with school age children in this case – that have suffered the consequences of inflationary pressures caused by the war in Ukraine and the expensiveness of essential consumer goods; a lamp sum payment is provided by the scheme.
Beneficiaries of the grant are all households with children 4-18 years of age with annual gross income up to €59,000. The grant was paid once and the amount was calculated on the basis of total gross annual household income of beneficiaries in the following seven household categories:
The total expenditure for the implementation of the measure was €3.3 million.
The total number of beneficiary households is 33,861 that received the benefit and the number of children benefited by the on-off grant is 52,186.
Workers | Businesses | Citizens |
---|---|---|
Does not apply to workers | Does not apply to businesses |
Children (minors)
Parents People on low incomes |
Actors | Funding |
---|---|
National government
|
National funds
|
Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:
Trade unions | Employers' organisations | |
---|---|---|
Role | No involvement | No involvement |
Form | Not applicable | Not applicable |
Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:
The designing of the grant scheme has been performed by the Deputy Ministry of Social Welfare and upon the decision of the members of the Cabinet; no social partner or political party has been invited to participate in any kind of consultation. Similarly, social partners and political parties have no involvement in the implementation of the grant. The implementation agency is the Deputy Ministry of Social Welfare.
No particular reactions have been recorded by social partners or political parties in regards to the issuing of the Grant and/or the content. However, the government received tough criticism from social partners and political parties in the previous period on the inadequacy and/or lack of government’s supporting measures to meet the effects of inflation on citizens.
Citation
Eurofound (2023), ‘Back to school’ lump-sum grant for children 4 to 18 years old, measure CY-2022-37/3026 (measures in Cyprus), EU PolicyWatch, Dublin, https://static.eurofound.europa.eu/covid19db/cases/CY-2022-37_3026.html
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30 January 2023
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