Tomas: Parents Taking Care of Children Won't Have Pensions Cut as of 2026

Bratislava, May 14 (TASR) - The period during which a parent takes care of a child while on maternity or parental leave should be counted toward their pension, Labour Minister Erik Tomas (Voice-SD) announced at a press conference on Wednesday. Tomas added that such a change aims to eliminate discrimination, especially against senior mothers, who more often care for children and therefore receive lower pensions. The amendment to the Social Insurance Act is likely to come into effect as early as January of next year. "The Slovak Constitution states that raising a child should not negatively affect the level of one’s pension, and we need to fulfil this provision. Our predecessors tried to do so with the so-called parental pension, which, according to all experts, does not fully meet this goal,” said Tomas, adding that the parental pension was discriminatory toward those without children, those whose children had died and those who are disabled and unable to work. Therefore, changes were needed, which took effect as of January 2025. Under the new system, the parental pension will no longer be paid from the Social Insurance Agency's contributions, but from personal income-tax revenues. Currently, when one parent takes care of a child during maternity or parental leave, pension contributions to social-insurer Socialna poistovna are paid based on 60 percent of the average salary. This results in lower pensions for this group of people, which Tomas called discriminatory. The entire process is set to be recalculated. "For senior mothers or fathers who took care of children while on maternity or parental leave, the state will view that period as if they were fully employed. Pension contributions will be accepted accordingly by Socialna positovna, meaning that we'll recalculate and, in many cases, increase pensions," clarified the Labour Minister. mf/df