FPÖ criticism: not noticeable 80 euros? Families face enormous challenges!

FPÖ criticism: not noticeable 80 euros? Families face enormous challenges!

Amstetten, Österreich - On May 16, 2025, the FPÖ Amstetten district chairman LAbg. Alexander Schnabel critically commented on the latest statements by the ÖVP politician Hanger. Schnabel described Hangar's statement that 80 euros were not noticeable than hostile to the family and accused the federal government to ignore the rapidly increasing living costs and extreme inflation in Austria. He demanded that more support for Austrian families are necessary, which in his opinion represent the core of society.

Schnabel also criticized the government's investments in the asylum industry and the Ukraine conflict, which in his view are at the expense of domestic families. He considered the demand for new elections in the federal government to be inevitable because the current federal government fails to provide the urgently needed support.

progress in family policy

Despite the critical voices from the opposition, family minister Susanne Raab draws a positive record of Austria's family policy before the international day of the family on May 15th. Austria has developed into a pioneer in the EU in family services in recent years, as a study by the European Commission shows. Since January 1, 2023, family services have been adapted to inflation annually, and for 2024 there is an increase of 9.7 percent.

An outstanding example is the family time bonus, which was more than doubled from 740 euros to around 1,600 euros. The family bonus plus was also increased to 2,000 euros. To improve the situation of families, the additional earnings limit for childcare money account and the aid was expanded. These measures should support and relieve families in a targeted manner.

investments in childcare

The federal government has invested in childcare since 2008 and has doubled the visiting quota for under-3 year olds to 32.1 percent through numerous measures. For 3 to 6 year olds, the rate has increased from 86.6 percent to 95.4 percent. A total of around 95,700 new places were created in childcare in order to better meet the needs of families.

A total of 4.5 billion euros flow into the expansion of childcare, of which the support of fathers participation, including through the papamonate and a partnership bonus, is crucial. Fathers have the option of receiving up to 1,600 euros as a family time bonus. The digitized parent-child pass also offers free parenting advice on topics such as parental leave and part-time.

In order to further strengthen child protection, a new child protection package is introduced, which provides for harder punishments for perpetrators and doubles the amount of funding to 1.2 million euros for 2024. At the same time, the federal government starts a campaign with the motto "No to violence" to strengthen children and young people.

In addition, the federal government has put together three packages against the amount of EUR 32 billion. This includes temporary measures such as 60 euros per child by the end of 2024 for certain recipients. Despite these progress in family policy, the critical voices of politics and Schnabel remains an important topic in the public debate.

For further information you can use this article on the page of OTS href = "https://www.bundeskanzleramt.gv.at/bundeskanzleramt/nachrichten-der-bundes government/2024/05/familienpolitik-oesterreich-ist-europameister-bei-bei-html"> Read.