A Child is an expense

 "A child is an expense" is a very unpleasant and undesirable definition of a child. However, a child has needs, in addition to protective and emotional and educational needs, also for housing, food, shoes and even school supplies, and I could list more.

Everyone who disputes such a definition of a child should at least look at the state's cost definition of a child. If the state did not define a child as an expense, guardians and/or parents would not receive so-called alimony or child support. These are additionally defined and calculated, because so-called free education and healthcare alone are not enough for children. A child is not capable of surviving without basic necessities of life. If all the child's needs cannot be met by the parents or guardians, the only way out for the parents is to apply for funds for the child from public funds or the so-called social.

The highest child allowance in Slovenia for one child in the first income bracket of parents is 143.81 euros. For two children, the child benefit is 158.18 euros. For three or more children, it is 172.58 euros. This first income bracket is the highest bracket for possible drawing public funds for child support. 

Of course, single-parent families or single parents are particularly protected, as they can receive an additional 30% increase in individual amounts. However, your child benefit for a child who is not yet four years old and is not included in preschool education will only increase by 20%. These data are valid in February 2025. In 2024, there were 316,284 children who needed child benefits from public funds. In 2023, there were 326,435 of these children.

The state also enables or encourages birth rates in other ways. When a child is born, you receive state aid of 429.99 euros. In addition, parents can exercise other parental rights such as maternity leave, paternity leave, parental leave, maternity, paternity and parental allowance, parental allowance, compensation during breastfeeding breaks, payment of social security contributions due to part-time work due to parenthood and payment of social security contributions from the minimum wage in the case of four or more children. 

In addition to subsidies for paying kindergarten costs, those who have two children in kindergarten at the same time and those who have three or more children are exempt from these payments. 

Textbook funds have also been established in schools, and in this way parents are exempted from buying textbooks. 

Of course, due to the low birth rate, the state also encourages the number of children in the family or so-called large families. The category awarded is the number, not the quality. Depending on the number of children, you can also receive the so-called annual allowance for large families, which currently amounts to 496.93 euros for a family with three children. For a family with four or more children, it is 603.86 euros. In 2024, there were 35,067 such allowances and the number of beneficiaries has increased compared to 2023.

Very little is known about other benefits for children. Very often, parents of children claim exemption from utility costs, which are then paid by neighbors with whom they share meters in apartment buildings. They also very often do not pay funds according to the number of people together with children into the mandatory reserve fund, which covers repairs and renovations in apartment buildings, cleaning costs and staircase lighting, and management costs.

 Also, other parental benefits for children and families from materially disadvantaged families are not defined, such as free vacations, other care, especially vacation care, additional professional assistance at Social Work Centers and educational institutions, as well as other benefits offered to families with children by individual companies.

In the case of poor or violent parenting, parents can only be subject to control by Social Work Centers, the allocation of all funds in goods if they wastefully spend funds intended for children, and in the extreme case, the removal of the child.

The state defines child care as one of its priorities in order to enable the child to grow up normally, including education, even in the case of material disadvantage for the parents.

A special benefit for families is also the so-called non-profit apartments, which are allocated according to the following scheme:

# A 1-member family can obtain a non-profit apartment of 20 to 30 m2 without participation, and from 20 to 45 m2 with participation.

# A 2-member family can obtain a non-profit apartment of over 30 to 45 m2 without participation, and from 30 to 55 m2 with participation.

# A 3-member family can obtain a non-profit apartment of 45 to 55 m2 without participation, and from 45 to 70 m2 with participation.

# A 4-member family can obtain a non-profit apartment of 55 to 65 m2 without participation, and from 55 to 82 m2 with participation.

 # A family of 5 can obtain a non-profit apartment of 65 to 75 m2 without participation. In the case of participation, it can be from 75 to 95 m2.

# A family of 6 is entitled to a non-profit apartment of 75 to 85 m2 without participation, and with participation, it can be over 75 to 105 m2.

The state also subsidizes rents for apartments where there is no upper limit of the apartment value of 120,000 euros, which is known to the Tax Administration for property owners, as well as the Social Work Centers for recipients of public funds if they are property owners. If you have property worth over 120,000 euros, they can even take your property away or enter a so-called prohibition on alienation and inheritance of property. For recipients of non-profit housing, the donated housing is not considered an additional use of public funds, nor is it included in the tax base or real estate tax, and they are not subject to special inheritance procedures. Namely, there is no known return of non-profit housing upon improved financial situation or departure of children, or such procedures are not established.