Coronavirus: Parental leave and babysitting vouchers, pending the Brussels green light

With schools closed until March 13, the government has decided to launch measures to support families. One of these is the lengthening of the period in which one parent can take extraordinary parental leave while the other parent is at work. The minister for the family, Elena Bonetti also said she wanted to reintroduce vouchers to pay for the babysitter. The measures, the minister specified, were intended to support families in caring for children at home, without exposing grandparents to possible contagion ”.

The measures are foreseen in a decree by 7,3 billion in support of production activities, expected for next week, while evaluations are underway, writes the Sole24Ore, by the Ministry of Economy on the costs of these interventions. Currently, parents of children up to 12 years of age can take advantage of parental leave for a total period of 10 months, receiving an allowance equal to 30% of the average daily wage up to the child's 8 years of age no allowance is provided , on the other hand, from 8 to 12 years.

Public and private employees and members of separate management can ask for it. They will be able to continue to use it even if they have already used the maximum period, the 30% indemnity would remain, which according to initial estimates would already have a cost of over 300 million.

Baby Sitter

The Undersecretary for Work, Francesca Puglisi said: "We aim to approve measures that are as inclusive as possible, compatibly with an overall budget that will have to finance, together with aid for families, support for the productive world". The measure is intended for public or private employees, for those registered in the separate management, for the self-employed or entrepreneurs, with different durations and a maximum amount of 600 euros per month.

Full sensitivity European Union

"Full sensitivity from the EU commission" - explained the Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte: "the EU commission is informed of this process we are working on to create this deviation from the programmatic objectives. Let's not take a leap in the dark, we can already declare that there is the full sensitivity of the UEA commission to understand the emergency we are going through. We do not expect any dystonia with respect to attitude".

The Minister of Economy and Finance, Roberto Gualtieri announced, in this regard, that "the letter that informs the EU of this deviation has started, we are in constant contact and from this point of view there is no problem". For the Minister of Economy "there is a significant negative impact of the Coronavirus emergency but it is entirely impossible to quantify it, we trust in an effective containment action and also for this reason we are very committed with the utmost rigor to apply the indications of the scientific community. There are hypotheses, evaluations but we do not intend to give numbers that have no basis".

Coronavirus: Parental leave and babysitting vouchers, pending the Brussels green light