President considers post-pandemic economic recovery key priority

Following a discussion with experts in the social and economic fields, Slovak president Zuzana Čaputová said she considers the social impact of the pandemic and economic recovery to be a key priority, and will address it from her position in the near future. The head of state emphasised that one in four households has no financial reserve and that one in five has savings of less than two monthly salaries. She added that groups that lived at risk of poverty before the pandemic have now been joined by, for example, self-employed people, small business people and people with irregular incomes. Among the proposals that would help to quickly compensate for the effects of the pandemic, experts mentioned more flexible conditions for receiving unemployment benefits, expanding housing benefits, increasing the allowance on which people in material need depend, more support in retraining and job search from labour offices.