Monthly allowances for children in both entitites in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) do not reach 200 BAM (100 euros). However, even these benefits are not available to everyone, but only to the most economically vulnerable families with children.
With the rigorous conditions for proving that status, and the multitude of documents they must submit, many families wait for months for payment.
Julija from Citluk, a small town in the south of BiH, is an unemployed mother of two children. Her family lives on her husband’s salary.
According to the existing law in the Federation of BiH (FBiH), she is entitled to child allowance in the amount of 113 BAM(about 57 euros) per month per child.
She submitted the request and the necessary documentation to the center for social work in mid-November last year. To date, she has received neither a solution nor money.
The monthly income of families in BiH, which wish to exercise the right to child allowances, must not exceed two hundred BAM per member.
And the cost of living in BiH is continuously increasing. According to the trade union’s estimate, the living expenses of a four-member family in the FBiH in March amounted to 2,892 BAM (about 1,478 euros), and in the second BH entity Republika Srpska (RS) 2,423 BAM (about 1,238 euros).
An allowance for all children?
UNICEF in BiH believes that child allowance should be universal, that is, available to every child in BiH, regardless of the financial status of the family. They point out that the responsibility for making this decision cannot be reduced only to the social and child protection sector, Slobodna Evropa reports.
E.Dz.
