Coalition unveils €770 million family support package

Lithuania’s coalition government plans to expand support for families by increasing funding for a first-home programme in the regions and introducing a universal school preparation allowance, LRT reported on Thursday.

Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius said after a meeting with coalition partners in the Lithuanian parliament that annual funding for the first-home programme would rise to €50 million.

“We all probably remember how registration and applications for first-home support would often end with the money running out within five minutes. That should change with greater funding,” Sinkevičius told reporters.

The government also plans to introduce a one-off payment of about €140 for preschool and primary school children to buy school supplies. The payment would be universal and would not depend on family income.

The allowance is currently provided as social assistance to lower-income families and amounts to €148, or twice the basic social benefit.

The coalition has not yet decided whether to change the ceiling on childcare leave payments or abolish it altogether. The current ceiling is set at two average salaries. Sinkevičius proposed doubling it to four average salaries, but coalition members also discussed removing the ceiling.

If the ceiling were abolished, the average salary used to calculate the payment could be based on a longer period, such as two or three years, the prime minister said.

“We will continue discussing the ceiling and the size of childcare payments linked to the parent’s salary before the child was born,” Sinkevičius said.

The measures are part of a family support package that Social Security and Labour Minister Inga Ruginienė is due to present later on Thursday. Implementing the plan would eventually require almost €770 million, although not all nine measures would take full effect next year.

Parliament Speaker Juozas Olekas said the package was good, but warned that its implementation speed and the cost to public finances would be the biggest challenges. He said the first related bills should reach parliament at the start of its autumn session.

Virginijus Sinkevičius, leader of the Democratic Union “For Lithuania”, said the package would also address support for children born with disabilities and premature babies. It would provide free school meals through the fourth grade.

He said the measures should send families a message that every child matters and that financial circumstances should not prevent people from having children. He added that the plan could not focus only on payments and that every area of policy needed to contribute to encouraging births.

“This package is not a one-off message about payments,” Virginijus Sinkevičius said, calling for a broader cultural shift in which families with children become a priority.