Deputy Labor Minister defends family welfare

Finance Minister Grzegorz Kolodko wants to limit expenses for family benefits. "This is in conflict with SLD's pre-election promises and the coalition agreement," warned Deputy Labor Minister Jolanta Banach, who addressed a letter to the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), the Labor Union (UP) and the Polish Peasants Party (PSL) requesting a solution to the dispute. In the letter she reminded coalition members that they agreed to expand social aid by "contributing a larger sum of money" for its purposes. The new family aid regulations, prepared by the Labor Ministry, have not as yet been assessed by the government as Kolodko refused to submit the matter to the government for debate until expenses in this sphere were lowered. "The Finance Ministry must be pressed primarily to solve social problems," said Tomasz Nalecz of UP. According to Labor Ministry calculations, the implementation of a new system of family benefits would cost zl. 7.5 billion next year, and zl. 8.2 billion in 2004. Kolodko does not want these future expenses to exceed zl. 7.5 billion. Jolanta Banach claims that this would be possible only if the government abandoned some of the financial benefits available to families. (Rzeczpospolita, Nov. 23-24, p. 1) A.C.