Veryga says money alone cannot reverse Lithuania’s birth-rate decline

LVŽS chairman Aurelijus Veryga said financial measures alone would not solve Lithuania’s declining birth rate, LRT reported, after the government presented a 770 million euro family support package.

Veryga said society needed to recognise that the issue was existential for the state, while stressing that financial support for families and people who want to have children was still necessary.

He identified possible measures including help with buying a first home, child-rearing benefits, and support related to education, healthcare and working conditions.

“It will not be possible to increase the birth rate with money alone, but money is also very much needed,” Veryga said on Žinių radijas on Wednesday.

According to Veryga, all sectors and systems should be involved in addressing demographic problems. He also highlighted the importance of culture and society’s attitude towards raising children.

Veryga said society had not yet broadly recognised that the declining birth rate was a matter of the country’s survival. He compared the issue with national security, saying there was already agreement on the need to strengthen the country’s defence, but not yet on the seriousness of the birth-rate problem.

“We understand that it is unsafe and that we need to defend ourselves, but the birth rate, in my view, is not yet understood today as a question of survival,” Veryga said.

Bank of Lithuania Governor Gediminas Šimkus said on Tuesday that the family package contained useful measures, but that the sources of funding for the full package were not sufficiently clear.

Veryga said the ruling coalition had discussed the funding sources. He also noted that not all measures would take effect immediately and that the spending would be spread over a longer period.

He said that as the birth rate declines, the state has more young people paying taxes, while some of that money is not later paid out as child-rearing benefits.

The government’s proposed family package includes free lunches for all pupils in grades five to 10, a first-home financing programme, higher and more flexible child-rearing benefits, and support for families returning to Lithuania from emigration for permanent residence.

Free school lunches are the package’s most expensive measure. The government plans to allocate 375.9 million euros for them in stages between 2029 and 2034.

The package also provides 123.6 million euros for higher child-rearing benefits, more flexible rules and higher benefit ceilings, as well as 11.3 million euros for increased benefits for parents caring for sick children. The new child-rearing benefit rules could take effect in 2028.

Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius has said that family policy funding would be a priority not only in next year’s state budget but also for the remainder of the government’s term.