Minister of Labour and Social Protection Marianna Shchetkina told lawmakers that unemployment benefits would not increase in Belarus in the near future. It should be noted, that strengthening social protection for the most vulnerable parts of society was one of the proposals within the new stand-by programme for structural reforms elaborated jointly with the IMF. Higher unemployment benefits may lead to a substantial increase in official unemployment rates and, accordingly, to additional budgetary costs. If tension in society increases due to growing unemployment rates, the state might review and mitigate some provisions of the controversial decree on social dependents (parasites).
