Criticism of FPÖ plan

“Stove premium” nationwide and as minimum security?

The FPÖ is planning to compensate families financially for childcare at home.

(Bild: APA/dpa/Andreas Gebert)

It is not only one of the most-discussed plans in the Styrian government program, but apparently also an issue for the blue-black coalition in Austria: financial compensation for parents who care for their child at home instead of in a crèche or kindergarten. The FPÖ is therefore considering increasing the childcare allowance to the level of the minimum income.

According to ORF, the specific amount involved was not disclosed during the blue-black negotiations. On Tuesday, both the ÖVP and the Freedom Party were generally tight-lipped on this issue. However, political observers doubt that the People's Party will agree to this project.

The minimum income varies from province to province. For people living alone and single parents, the maximum amount of social assistance is around 1,200 euros per month; for couples, the maximum amount is just under 1,700 euros (twelve times a year in each case). The childcare allowance amounts to 41.14 euros per day in the shortest variant and 17.65 euros in the longest variant. The longer you plan to receive the allowance, the lower the daily amount.

Freedom Party speaks of freedom of choice, SPÖ of dependency
While the FPÖ speaks of "freedom of choice" and rejects the term "stove premium", massive criticism comes from the ÖGB, SPÖ and NEOS. "Women need an independent income that they can live on. Only with a job can women build up a secure existence, otherwise they become dependent," explains SPÖ women's spokesperson Eva-Maria Holzleitner.

Women can only build up a secure existence with a job, otherwise they become dependent.

SPÖ-Frauensprecherin Eva-Maria Holzleitner

"Pressure for economically weak families"
 "The fact that the FPÖ wants to pay women to stay at home and not send their children to nursery shows impressively how regressive their view of women is (...)", says NEOS women's spokesperson Henrike Brandstötter. With a "stove premium", economically weak families in particular would be put under pressure.

"Provision of alternatives unavoidable"
 The Blue Party's line: One prefers the care of children in the security of the family to state substitute measures. However, they know that this is not always possible, which is why the provision of alternatives is essential, according to the FPÖ's election manifesto. Reference is made to corresponding models in Lower and Upper Austria.

In Upper Austria, for example, 80 euros are paid out per month. According to the Vienna Chamber of Labor, however, this is at the expense of the expansion of institutional childcare, with the federal state regularly bringing up the rear in terms of childcare rates. Salzburg, Vorarlberg and Styria want to implement similar models: In the Styrian municipality of Lannach, parents who look after their child at home instead of in a crèche are already compensated financially. This offer has now been in place for eight years in the municipality of 3,700 inhabitants.