The number of Czechs who say the government is not taking sufficient care of the social situation of families with children has risen significantly over the past four years, according to a CVVM poll released to CTK today. 52% agreed with this view in this year’s poll, up from 28% in 2020.
At the same time, the number of people who consider the government’s concern for the social situation of families with children to be adequate has declined.
Of the government’s family policy measures, the most support is found for flexible working hours and part-time work for parents with children, while the planned merger of child benefit, housing benefit and living allowance has the least support.
The number of people who considered the government’s concern for the social situation of families to be insufficient had gradually decreased from 2012, when 66% of them agreed. In 2017, for the first time since the survey began in 2004, a majority saw the government’s concern as adequate. This continued until 2020, but in a survey this year, four years later, more people again see the government’s care as inadequate. 42% now think it is adequate, down from 59% four years ago, the highest ever in the survey period.
People mostly view the government’s actions on family policy positively.
“About nine out of ten Czechs agree that flexible working hours or part-time work for parents with young children should be supported and that the number of kindergartens should be increased,” said CVVM.
More than four-fifths of respondents support paternity leave, which is currently set at 14 days of paid leave for fathers in the six weeks after the birth of a child. A similar proportion of people appreciate financial support for school meals for children from disadvantaged families and tax cuts for people with dependent children.
Eight in ten people would agree with support for partners alternating on parental leave and an increase in child benefit. “Three-quarters of respondents would support state-funded child maintenance in cases where it is not paid by one of the child’s parents, from whom the state would then recover the money,” the survey authors wrote.
The second lowest, but still overwhelmingly supported, of all the areas surveyed is the introduction of across-the-board child benefits. 57% of people are in favour and 38% against. “There is even lower support for the merging of child benefit and housing benefit together with the living allowance, for which less than half of citizens are in favour (48%), and just under 36% oppose the move,” said CVVM.
The report said support for targeted benefits remains higher than for across-the-board benefits.
CVVM surveyed 951 people aged 15 and over between 15 March and 2 June.
