MPs to keep their benefits
The Belarusian parliament is in June expected to pass a new controversial legislation which envisages cuts in social benefits, a measure the government wants to use to save money. Benefits will remain only for those who are truly in need for them. Besides, the social assistance will be strictly targeted, under the new draft.
It is interesting that at least six months will pass between the day when the benefits are cut and the day a resolution on targeted assistance will be enacted, according to Siarhej Kamianecki, the Labor and Social Security Committee chairman at the House of Representatives. Thus, the Belarusians risk being left without any benefits for at least six months.
The European Radio for Belarus has decided to find out whether legislators were set to cut their own benefits. Iryna Aliaksanava, the deputy chairperson of the Labor and Social Security Committee, said that MPs did not enjoy any benefits.
“The deputies have no benefits!” she told our radio.
Hanna Burava, the deputy chair of the Housing Policy and Trade Committee at the House of Representatives, said that apart from benefits, MPs did not have any additional payments or the so called “13th salaries”.
“The deputies have freed themselves of benefits. When I worked at my factory, we were paid this 13th salary. When I was elected a member of parliament, we do not receive this payment,” she said.
But Burava also told the European Radio for Belarus that MPs were paid once a year an amount equal to their monthly salary.
“We have assistance, equal to the monthly salary amount,” she said.
MPs receive this assistance before taking a leave. The money must be spent for improving their health, which legislators do not spare when working to pass laws. MP Siarhej Haidukievic says there is nothing extraordinary in this.
“Yes, that’s right. We are given the so called health-rehabilitation money. Is this a benefit? When I was going on a leave, I definitely received this assistance,” he said.
Neither the state nor MPs look at this money as a benefit. So, when all the Belarusians will see their benefits cut, MPs will remain with their financial privileges.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Labor reports that each Belarusian is granted approximately Br20,000 annually in budget subsidies. The average wage rate of a legislator in this country is around Br1 million. Together with bonuses, MPs receive an average of over Br2 million ($1000) monthly.
“Leave assistance” is not the only bonus to MP’s salary. For instance, under the Law on State Service, any public servant qualifies for a 10-percent bonus out of the monthly salary even after having worked for only six months at a government post. If you have worked for the state for three years, you are entitled to the 15-percent monthly bonus.
According to Zviazda newspaper, the targeted assistance which is to replace benefits will be paid to only those whose monthly income is less than 60 percent of the minimum wage in the country. It means that in order to qualify for the targeted assistance from the state, you have to make not more than $102,000 for each family member.
