📋 Tender Overview
Criticism, on the other hand, came from NEOS MP Gerald Loacker. Nobody forced the women concerned to choose the income-related childcare allowance and to remain on leave under labour law for longer after it expired, he said. "People have set these traps for themselves" and would now "pass on undesirable effects of their decisions to the general public". And this is also at the expense of women who would have opted for less cash benefit. People must understand that they have to bear the consequences of their own decisions themselves, Loacker said.
To the objection of Member of Parliament Zopf, according to which the granting of special maternity allowance was necessary in the sense of equal treatment, the social spokesman of the NEOS said that those affected could also be redirected retrospectively to the long variant of childcare allowance.
In response to concerns by FPÖ MP Ecker, according to which it might be difficult to inform all women affected by the retroactive regulation, Social Affairs Minister Johannes Rauch reacted by stating that the Ministry of Social Affairs would publicize the provisions accordingly.
