Commitment To Equity For Children: Redistributive Effects And Efficiency Of Social Assistance To Households With Children In Belarus

Children are explicitly targeted by social policy in Belarus, as child-related benefits constitute a major part of the public direct transfers. Despite this, households with children are among the social groups most vulnerable to the risk of absolute poverty and multidimensional poverty in Belarus. This paper seeks to inform the understanding of the distributional impact of taxes and public spending on children in Belarus. The analysis reveals that current child benefits system is geared towards supporting the families with children aged 0-2, which leads to crucial gaps and shortfalls in coverage of the most vulnerable groups: households with three or more children, single-parent households, and children aged 6-9. Besides, households with children often bear a heavier-than-average tax burden as compared to the general public. Therefore, the design of the social assistance to the households with children needs improvement, in particular, by means of development of targeted social assistance and introduction of vulnerable group-specific benefits for, inter alia, households with three or more children, and single-parent households. 

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