How to live on miserable sums?

The new living wage was set in Belarus on November 1.

Journalists calculated that officials think 20,000 rubles a day is enough for Belarusians. A journalist of Salidarnsts went shopping to see what he can buy.

On October 29, the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection set the new living wage. The decision comes into force on November 1. Despite the fact that inflation rate exceeded the expected annual level, living wages have decreased for many categories of people.

Since November 1, the families with an income of more than 1,396,020 per capita will overcome the poverty line. The new living wage was increased only 52,000 in comparison with the previous one.

The calculations of the living wage are based on the needs of an average family of two working-age adults, a 13-year-old boy and a 7-year-old girl. The arithmetic mean is the living wage that is used when calculating pensions and child allowances.

Live more modestly

Belarus sets different living wages for different categories of people. It's interesting that the living wage for children from 3 to 6 years old fell 22.9%, or 367,920 rubles. The Ministry of Labour and Social Protection also cut the needs of children under 3 by 185,000 rubles (16.9%).

Pensioners are also supposed to live more modestly. The living wage for them was decreased 71,500 rubles (6.3%). The ministry says the living wage is used to provide state social aid to citizens and families with low incomes.

The new living wage for pensioners is 1,072,000 rubles, for children under 3 years old – 911,700 rubles, for children from 3 to 6 – 1,270,000 rubles. A journalist of Salidarnasts went to a shop to ask young parents and older people if it is possible to live on such money.

“We bring everything from abroad. We cannot live otherwise”

A young mother was choosing children's books at a hypermarket. Inha, 29, has a two-year-old daughter and doesn't have time to read news. The living wage decrease came as an unpleasant surprise for her:

“Who sets these norms? How is it possible to live on this miserable sum? The kid is growing. Clothes and food are not they only things she needs. I've bought only three books – two fairy tales and a book to train speech. They cost 173,000. I've also bought a colouring book, pencils, drawing albums and cubes. It's nearly 500,000. How should I feed the kid if I have only 1,5 million of the child allowance left? Let them try to live on this money for at least a month!”

A big family were choosing presents for elder Daminika and Hleb in the toy section, while small Bahdan was sleeping in a baby basket. Yulia, 32, and Anatoli, 30, are not happy to hear the news.

Yulia:

“We haven't received allowance for the third child, but we'd like some help from the state. My husband is a long-distance driver. He brings everything from abroad. Baby food, clothes, diapers, wet napkins are much cheaper there. We manage to survive. But if we needed to buy them here... I don't how we would live.”

Anatoli:

“We spend 3-4 million on diapers, but the child allowance is only 2 million. We buy food here, but I try to bring all other things from abroad. We don't have other variants to live normally. It's good that we can use our elder children's clothes, toys and strollers for the younger kid. It would be really hard if we had to buy them again.

Baby stuff costs a lot, but you cannot explain to your baby that the child's allowance is not enough even to buy baby food. A tin of baby food costs more than 20,000. Food with better quality costs more. And don't forget that the mother also needs to eat and wear something...”