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Tuesday, 13.05.2025, 07:14
Social protection expenditure in Latvia increased by 5.9 %
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The expenditure growth was mostly affected by the
deregulation of maternity, paternity and parental benefit size limits as well
as amendments in the terms for granting childcare benefit that came into force
on 1 October 20141. Rise was observed also in the expenditure on
family state allowance, as since 2015 the size thereof was set based on the
number of children in family, and in the expenditure on the state support
programme for children who do not have place in pre-school education
establishment (8.2 mln euros in 2014 and 11.4 mln euros in 2015).
Social protection expenditure in Latvia (million euros)
| 2013 | 2014 | 2015 (provisional data) | Changes in 2015, compared to 2014, % | |
mln euros | % | ||||
Total expenditure on social protection | 3 335.5 | 3 418.3 | 3 619.7 | 100.0 | 5.9 |
of which: |
|
|
|
|
|
sickness/health care | 776.1 | 815.4 | 876.3 | 24.2 | 7.5 |
disability | 275.1 | 308.1 | 332.0 | 9.2 | 7.8 |
old age | 1 715.5 | 1 706.8 | 1 745.7 | 48.2 | 2.3 |
survivors | 47.8 | 46.1 | 45.0 | 1.2 | -2.5 |
family/children | 267.6 | 306.4 | 380.2 | 10.5 | 24.1 |
unemployment | 137.8 | 134.4 | 141.0 | 3.9 | 4.9 |
housing | 26.2 | 22.8 | 21.1 | 0.6 | -7.3 |
social exclusion | 32.4 | 29.9 | 25.9 | 0.7 | -13.3 |
administrative costs (estimated) | 56.3 | 47.6 | 51.5 | 1.4 | 8.3 |
other expenditure | 0.8 | 0.9 | 0.9 | 0.0 | 3.3 |
In 2015, expenditure on support for disabled persons (except
for payments related to healthcare) grew by 7.8 %. The rise was due to the
increase in expenditure on assistant services, on public transport fare
concessions for person of 1st and 2nd disability
group and on nursing allowance to disabled persons aged over 18 (from
142.29 euros before 1 July 2014 to 213.43 euros from the date onwards).
In 2015, the largest decline (of 13.3%) was recorded in the
expenditure on social exclusion; the drop was mainly related to the reduction
in local government expenditure on guaranteed minimum income (hereinafter – the
GMI benefit). Compared to 2014, when expenditure on the GMI benefit accounted
for 9.9 mln euros, in 2015 it diminished by 20.3% and comprised 7.8 mln euros.
The data of the Ministry of Welfare show that during 2015 the number of the GMI
benefit recipients fell from 21 thousand persons in January to 15 thousand
persons in December.
In 2015, social protection expenditure constituted 14.9% of
the gross domestic product (GDP) – 0.4 percentage points more than in 2014
(14.5% of GDP). For comparison, in 2014 social protection expenditure in
Estonia comprised 14.8% of the GDP and in Lithuania 14.7% of the GDP.
Every year the European Statistics System compiles and
publishes harmonised data regarding expenditure on social protection in
compliance with the ESSPROS (European System of Integrated Social Protection
Statistics) methodology developed by the Eurostat (Statistical Office of the
European Communities). In Latvia the compilation of data on social protection
in accordance with the ESSPROS was started in 2004, using information provided
by various institutions.
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