Czech Republic to give one-off COVID-19 payment to senior citizens, says PM

Prague, Aug 23 (CTK) – The Czech government is considering giving a one-off contribution of 5,000 or 6,000 crowns to senior citizens, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO) has told the latest edition of the daily Pravo.

“We will give it either next or even this year,” Babiš said.

Babiš said he wanted to agree on this with Interior Minister Jan Hamáček (Social Democrats, CSSD) on Monday and then this would be announced officially.

Labour and Social Affairs Minister Jana Maláčová (CSSD) told the commercial television station Nova on Saturday that she would present the proposal to give the one-off bonus of 6,000 crowns to senior citizens to the government on Monday.

“On Monday, I will submit the proposal. We call it the ‘face-mask money’ and I firmly believe that we will manage to approve it,” she added.

Malacova said the ‘face-mask money’ should be paid out before this Christmas.

“There is an agreement on the one-off contribution to the elderly this year. We will only discuss its sum in the weeks to come,” Finance Minister Alena Schillerová (ANO) has said.

Earlier this week, Schillerová told the server Blesk.cz that she wanted to give an extra one-off sum of over 1,000 crowns to pensioners this year.

Chamber of Deputies member Olga Richterová (Pirates) then told the commercial television station Prima that due to the one-off contribution, some elderly might not be eligible for the housing contribution for three months.

In late March, the average old-age pension was 14,397 crowns in the Czech Republic.