24.8.2022 The new policy paper relates, inter alia, to how the Managing Director of the Research Institute for Labour and Social Affairs, Robin Maialeh, presented the priorities of the Institute during a meeting held in May with representatives of the European Parliament Committee on Employment and Social Affairs.
This year’s 2nd RILSA policy paper aims to calculate consumer price indices for various groups of households in the Czech Republic. The authors work with data obtained from the Czech Household Budget Survey and the Consumer Price Index. They found that the inflation rates faced by various groups of Czech households are very similar to the inflation rate for the total population, not including the elderly. The only exception is single-parent households, which are facing a higher rate of inflation in 2022. However, the difference is relatively low.
Furthermore, the researchers report that inflation caused by housing, water, electricity, gas and other energy categories is higher for low-income and single-parent households than for higher-income and two-parent households. The largest difference concerns single-parent households, for which the rising prices of housing, water, electricity, gas and other energy categories account for 40.15% of total inflation, compared to 28.44% for single-parent families.
The authors calculated the reduction in purchasing power inflicted as a result of inflation for low-income and single-parent households in the amount of CZK 15,179 and CZK 20,445, respectively. The group of authors recommends that government assistance be focused primarily on single-parent households and households with low incomes.
Among other issues, the mentioned research relates to a meeting in May between VÚPSV/RILSA Managing Director Robin Maialeh and researcher Jana Váňová and representatives of the European Parliament Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, which took place in connection with the upcoming Czech presidency of the Council of the EU. The European Parliament delegation was led by the Czech MEP Tomáš Zdechovský (EPP parliamentary group), accompanied by Radan Kanev (EPP, Bulgaria) and Gabriele Bischoff (S&D, Germany). Staff from the Office of the European Parliament in the Czech Republic also took part in the meeting.
The purpose of the meeting was to familiarise members of the European Parliament and EU officials with the current socio-economic situation in the Czech Republic. Discussions covered the issues of war refugees from Ukraine, the housing situation and the effects of inflation, all in the wider context of the Czech Republic’s social security system. During the meeting, representatives of the Research Institute for Labour and Social Affairs presented the Institute‘s research priorities.
RILSA Policy Paper, No. 2/2022
