Labour Ministry Proposes Legislation to Combat Truancy and Abuse of Foster Care

Bratislava, 22 June (TASR) - The Labour, Social Affairs, and the Family Ministry will submit a package of bills for inter-ministerial review aimed at addressing truancy, the abuse of fictitious foster care, and social benefits for third-country nationals, Labour Minister Erik Tomas (Voice-SD) stated at a press conference on Monday. The bill is expected to reach the cabinet for deliberation in late August, and Parliament could approve it during its autumn sessions so that it takes effect at the beginning of next year. Tomas had already announced changes to the penalties for truancy back in April. The essence of these changes is that child benefits will temporarily be paid to the municipality as a special recipient, and if the situation doesn't improve within three months, the benefits will be completely withdrawn. The threshold for such action would be 15 unexcused absences per month or 60 unexcused absences during the school year. "Unless the situation is rectified, we'll simply extend this period of withholding child benefits by three months until the child properly enrols in school," said Tomas. According to the minister, other grounds for the same procedure include failure to enrol a child in school, a child's failure to attend school or the mandatory year of nursery school, as well as misconduct at the school level. A fourth reason for sanctions will be a parents' failure to cooperate with the school. The minister specified that in 2025, there were 13,297 children who didn't attend school regularly and 8,521 irresponsible parents. am