Czech families to receive CZK 5,000 benefit per child next week

The one-off benefit of CZK 5,000 per child for families with children will begin being paid by the Czech government on Wednesday, Aug. 24, Labor Minister Marian Jurečka told reporters Friday.

According to Jurečka, the Ministry has processed approximately 272,000 applications for 428,000 children so far, which would amount to a total of about CZK 7.8 billion.

The one-time benefit is intended to help families fight soaring inflation costs. Those with one or more children who earned less than one million crowns in total family income last year are eligible for the benefit.

Families who receive monthly child benefit payments have automatically been included in the plan and have already received the payment, Jurečka added. Payments of about CZK 1.2 billion have been processed automatically.

The online system to register for the one-time payment experienced some technical problems on Monday when registration opened, but is now working without issue, according the the Labor Minister.

"The application system is working, although there were complications for several hours on Monday," Jurečka told reporters yesterday.

"If we look at the numbers from this week, it is a very large volume of requests. As of Friday, we have already paid 1.2 billion into the accounts of [people who receive child benefits] and we expect that after Aug. 24, payment of the applications that began on Aug. 15 should start."

Statistical data shows that a total of about 1.6 million children in the Czech Republic should be entitled to the benefit, of which 240,000 currently receive benefit payments. Families have applied for payments for around one-third of the eligible children in the country.

According to Jurečka, the process of applying for the benefits and paying them out has been a huge undertaking for the Czech Ministry of Labor. The Czech state has often been accused of lagging behind its neighbors in areas of digitization and the simplification of bureaucratic processes.

"We have made a huge shift," Jurečka stated, referring to the new system. "What hasn't worked here for years now works."

According to the Labor Minister, additional improvements in digital communication between the Czech state and its residents will continue over the coming years. People should be able to log on to a government portal and clearly see what benefits they are entitled to, he added.