President fails to help Sikorski’s triplets
According to the newspaper SB-Belarus Segodnya, it was a cry of soul from the Sikorskis. They wished the state could help them at least with something to raise their triplets. Their income was enough only to pay their mortgage, utilities, medicines and pampers. The parents are helping the young family to pay for food and clothing. The Sikorskis applied for the targeted social assistance but were denied, because they get over Br 200,000 ($100) per each family member.
Lukashenka was out in Venezuela, so it was his aide Genadz Nyavybarny who met with Dzmitry Sikorski. While conversing with the young dad of triples, the official admitted that the legislation was not perfect.
“We wrote to the highest authority after we had exhausted all possible instances, including a social security center, the local administrations, the House of Representatives, the Ministry of Heath, etc. Nobody could help us,” narrates Dzmitry Sidorski.
The Sidorskis were asking for a social housing, a social transport so that they could drive the kids to the clinic, and free medicines. When the triples were born, the government paid 42 percent of the cost of a three-bedroom apartment in a spleeing district.
“I and my wife were in line for an apartment for 19 years. After we got the triples born, we were offered this option: the government pays 42 percent, the rest is on us. I took a loan for 40 years. I currently pay Br 150,000 as a monthly mortgage payment,” Sidorski says.
The Sidorskis can’t move to a new apartment yet, because they have no money for reconditioning. That’s why they approached the president who decided to help.
This story made the headlines in all of the state-run media. Sovietskaya Belorussia placed a photo of happy Sidorskis on the front page. Officials promise that a new regulation in support of such families is being drafted to include: a social nurse until the kids turn three years old -- currently, it is provided for kids before two years old; secondly, a free foodstuff package before the kids are three years old, regardless of income. But the European Radio for Belarus has learned that all this is not for the Sikorskis.
Tatsiana Shametavets, a deputy head of the employment policy department at the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, told the European Radio for Belarus that these services are already in place but only on condition that the income for every family members does not exceed Br 200,000 per month. There is a fiscal limitation regarding a free food for children: Br 37-50,000.
Children in the age of up to 2 are entitled to a free foodstuff package, the family income taken into account. The package includes milk formulas, meat cans, fruit juices and mashed fruits – all Belarus-made.
Nobody knows exactly when a government’s resolution will be passed. But the Sikorskis are likely to remain with this long-awaited assistance, because Irakli, Damir and Mikita Sikorski are 2 years and 4 months. Even if the officials rush up, no nurse can be hired just for several months.
The European Radio for Belarus asked Dzmitry whether he felt sort that it was him who asked the president for his family, but it would be others who will take use of benefits.
He said: “The most important thing is that we have achieved that other families with triples will be somehow take care of in the legal framework.
Photo by sb.by
