The government's support for marriage is paying off: more and more marriages are being contracted, while the number of divorces is decreasing, the willingness to have children has increased by a fifth by 2023 compared to 2010.
According to the latest available data from March, the family support tool, choc plus, with the new conditions, is performing excellently, the rise in applications is more dynamic than what was experienced when the original choc was introduced, stated Ágnes Hornung.
The Secretary of State responsible for families of the Ministry of Culture and Innovation clarified in a lengthy interview with Index: more than 3,100 applications were submitted by young married couples by the end of March, so this number of families took advantage of the opportunity offered by Csok Plus already in the first three months.
The amount of accepted applications was HUF 83 billion, i.e. the families applied for an average loan of HUF 26 million.
It is also a gratifying fact that almost two-thirds of the claimants are still childless, meaning that they are likely to have children thanks to the support.
the state secretary pointed out, adding: a third of the claimants already have at least one child, that is, they want a sibling in addition to an existing child.
"This is also very good news, since the basic principle of our family policy is to support the birth of all desired children. Regarding the number of children, according to current data, about half of married couples have two or more children. In addition, families without children have a higher proportion of two or three children. Thus, the average number of children - if all planned children are born - will increase to roughly two in families requiring chocolate extra. What's more, we expect that there will be those who would like to have an additional child in addition to the one they have undertaken," Ágnes Hornung specified, adding:
about three-quarters of families require the loan to acquire their first shared home, and a quarter to move to another home.
The state secretary pointed out that, in addition to supporting families, chocolate plus also has serious economic stimulating effects.
"Due to the war, restarting the economy and economic growth are also our goals. According to information from financial institutions, almost a third of home loan applications can be linked to the Csoc plus, which far exceeds our expectations. In this regard, I think that one of the serious goals formulated when the program was announced, the boost of the housing market and the construction industry, is well supported by csok plus from the very first moment".
The new opportunity acts as a catalyst for builders as well: a large number of them started or are restarting their previously abandoned developments or those that were only on the planning table based on the chocolate plus.
"The aim of the government's measures with all its measures is to help families with children financially, so that the desired children can be born. For this, families need a suitable, stable background. Several measures support the strengthening of the financial security of families raising children. In this regard, the most serious help is the system of family tax relief. With the measures, we managed to achieve a higher per capita income of married couples raising children than those who do not raise children," stated Ágnes Hornung.
The state secretary also outlined: since 2018, the home ownership rate of families with children exceeds the home ownership rate of childless households.
The latter was largely contributed to by social security and, from 2019, the baby support, which, although it is a free-to-use loan, is used in a large percentage of cases to ease housing problems, to buy or build a new home, as well as to renovate and expand the existing home. waiting families.
"The financing of family policy measures is one of the items of the budget that enjoys absolute priority even in the current permanent war situation. There is no change in this and there will be no change as long as the right-wing government is in charge," stated the state secretary.
Ágnes Hornung also talks about the following topics in the rest of the interview:
- the chocolate plus will indeed cost the budget less in the short term, but if the favorable trend of the start-up continues, the budget should not be an obstacle for young families to find a new home,
- the higher loan amount was necessary because, with the increase in real estate prices, the previous support rate was no longer sufficient to effectively solve housing problems,
- now, by combining the options (chocolate plus, babysitting, village chocote), young people can even buy a flat without any effort,
- according to the available data, the majority of those applying for support have their (first) child,
- with the resolution of economic uncertainties, decisions are made in more families about housing investment, and more people can have children,
- compared to 2010, the desire to have children increased by a fifth by 2023, despite the fact that more children were born last year than in 2011, that the number of women of childbearing age decreased by 300,000,
- the government's pro-marriage approach: more and more marriages are being contracted, while the number of divorces is decreasing.
