Problems faced in everyday life by both, the deaf and translators of the Polish Sign Language, as well as a project of solutions concerning translators’ certification constitute the main points of the Thursday meeting of the Polish Board of Sign Language (Polska Rada Języka Migowego) at the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy with the Minister, Elżbieta Rafalska and the Vice-Minister, Krzysztof Michałkiewicz.

Today, the Mother 4+ governmental programme started. Many years of work to the benefit of family and the effort of bringing up at least four children obtain a real value in a form of the parental supplementary benefit Mother 4+.

More and more persons with disabilities are professionally active. The situation is still not perfect, but both, the professional activity rate and the employment rate reached record values in the third quarter of the last year. Despite trends being positive, professional activation of persons with disabilities remains quite a challenge.

The unemployment remains at a record low level, fewer and fewer people are professionally passive and the registers of employment of the long-term unemployed are shrinking much faster than the Union average. We analysed the labour market trends in the last three years.

The announced by the Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki and activated in the previous year “Good Start” programme proved to be a hit. Almost all authorised persons benefited therefrom. The benefit – PLN 300 on school supplies – reached 4.4 million of students in total.

“One of the elderly ladies wrote a poem in which she called me an angel. Then I understood the importance of the work we do. We are the only help for many elderly persons in their daily life”, said a care assistant with 15 years of experience. With the 75+ Care programme, municipalities may increase the number of hours of senior citizen services.

They learn to surf the net, cook and attend inter-generational workshops - as part of projects implemented under the Programme for Social Engagement of the Elderly (ASOS).

The centenary of the establishment of the Public Employment Services was celebrated with a festive gala with a participation of the Minister, Elżbieta Rafalska. The most distinguished employment offices were awarded.

The Council of Ministers adopted a bill on parental supplementary benefit. Due to the new provisions, persons who brought up at least four children and do not have necessary means of subsistence, will acquire the right to receive the benefit. Over 801 million zloty has been reserved for the “Mother 4+” programme in the state budget for the year 2019. The benefit will be paid as of March.

A record growth in the number of day homes and Senior+ clubs, a huge programme budget and an even stronger focus on the needs of senior citizens from rural areas - it was a crucial year for the senior citizen policy. In 2019, the budget of the Senior+ Programme was 80 million PLN!