2023-11-20 13:36:08
Budget chapter social affairs and pensions, health, work, economy, agriculture, education, science
Vienna (PK) – On Wednesday he sets National Council Parliamentary deliberations on the 2024 federal budget and the new federal financial framework 2024 to 2027 continue with the chapters on social affairs, pensions and consumer protection, health, work, economy (including applied research and tourism) as well as agriculture and forestry, regions and water management. The MPs also want to discuss the estimates for education, science and research as well as the youth budget. The meeting starts at 9:00 a.m.
Social and consumer protection
The budget for social affairs and consumer protection is increasing significantly above the inflation rate. With estimated total expenditure of €5.88 billion, 16.8% more funds will be available for this in 2024 than in the 2023 budget estimate. Compared to 2022, the increase is even 44.76%.
In addition to additional spending on the care sector, measures to combat poverty (+€326 million) and additional funds for pilot projects for people with disabilities (+€50 million) are particularly important. Households at risk of poverty will receive a monthly child allowance of €60 until the end of 2024, and the so-called “housing umbrella” will also be continued. In addition, the Ministry of Social Affairs will receive 44 additional positions to deal with the consequences of the crisis – including in the health sector. The budget for consumer protection will be increased from €6.7 million to €8.18 million, and that for victims’ pensions and other benefits from €101.7 million to €108.03 million.
By far the largest expenditure item in the social budget is care, for which payments of €4.89 billion are earmarked. The funds will be used, among other things, for the care allowance including care leave (€3.26 billion), the care fund (€1.1 billion), the promotion of 24-hour care, transfers to the states as a result of the abolition of the care recourse, used to support caring relatives as well as for hospice and palliative care. The higher allocation to the care fund agreed during the financial equalization negotiations and the new funding rates for 24-hour care have already been priced in.
The pension
For the area of statutory pension insurance, the draft budget for 2024 envisages expenditure of €16.66 billion. That is around €2.71 billion or 19.4% more than in 2023. €1.26 billion of this will be used for the compensation allowance. The rest goes primarily into state liability for pensions and various pension contributions (e.g. for farmers and traders). The income in this budget breakdown is set comparatively low at €60.1 million and results from heavy night work contributions.
In addition to the increasing number of pensioners and the 2024 pension increase of 9.7%, the reason for the increase in expenditure is the temporary suspension of the aliquotation regulation for the first pension adjustment and the protective clause for new pension entrants in 2024, both of which are intended to prevent inflation-related pension losses. In addition, the partially delayed increase in the statutory retirement age for women will have an impact, from which one sixth of the affected birth cohorts between 1963 and 1968 will benefit. Decisions from previous years such as the introduction of the early starter bonus are also reflected. Although premium payments are increasing due to the relatively good economic situation, this cannot fully compensate for the additional expenses.
The dynamics of pension spending become even more visible when civil servant pensions budgeted elsewhere are taken into account. According to the federal financial framework, the federal government’s pension spending is expected to rise continuously to €35.23 billion by 2027, with €20.7 billion of this falling into the area of statutory pension insurance and €14.54 billion into the area of civil servant pensions. The share of expenditure for statutory pension insurance in the state’s total expenditure will increase from around 12.1% in 2023 to an expected 16.2% in 2027.
The payments for the health sector shown in the Federal Finance Act amount to a total of €3.25 billion in 2024. The increase compared to the previous year of €393.4 million (13.8%) is primarily due to higher budget resources for financial equalization (+€920.0 million) and various emergency measures as part of the health reform package. The expiring measures to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic (-€642.9 million) had a counteracting effect.
The funds reserved for financial equalization are to be used not only for the private practice sector (€300 million), but also for the outpatient sector and the implementation of structural reforms (€550 million). With regard to the planned comprehensive health care reform, the first legislative and financial course was set as part of the budget accompanying law, such as the provision of a total of €60 million for the creation of 100 additional cash register points in the private sector. This also includes a starting bonus (€10 million) of up to €100,000 for positions that are difficult to fill in the fields of general medicine, gynecology and pediatrics and adolescent medicine. The federal government will provide a further €50 million in 2024 and €25 million in 2025 for clinical psychological treatments.
Work
In the labor budget chapter, which primarily contains funds for unemployment benefits and emergency assistance as well as for active labor market policy, payments of around €9.47 billion are estimated for 2024. This is offset by deposits of around €9.35 billion, most of which come from unemployment insurance contributions. Both payouts and deposits are expected to increase compared to 2023. There will be an increase in payouts (2023: €9.27 billion) of €199 million or 2.1%, and in payments (2023: €8.59 billion) of €764.4 million or 8.9% expected. The focus of active labor market policy is on supporting those entitled to asylum or subsidiary protection as well as people with disabilities in the labor market: €75 million has been earmarked for an intensive program to integrate those entitled to asylum. €50 million in additional funds are planned for the integration of people with disabilities.
Applied research
The funds of €263.9 million for applied research carried out by industry are budgeted for 2024, a decrease of €17.8 million compared to 2023. The decline is primarily due to the expiry of additional funds in the life science sector (-€42.1 million). In contrast, an increase of around €30 million is included for application-oriented research projects in the area of digital and sustainable transformation of the economy. The budget for the IPCEI Microelectronics II and IPCEI Hydrogen programs remains unchanged at €29.8 million and €17.3 million, respectively. For IPCEI Microelectronics I, the budgeted payments decrease by €6.1 million to €20.4 million.
Economy and tourism
The budget for the economics department is expected to fall by €270 million to €3.25 billion next year. This decline is due in particular to significantly lower payments for the investment bonus of around €683 million for 2024 (-€1.5 billion compared to 2023), as many companies have already implemented and accounted for their investments and therefore have a lower amount in 2024 Funding needs are to be expected. However, this is offset by higher or additional payments for energy cost subsidies for companies totaling €1.88 billion (+€1 billion), since in particular for the implementation of the energy cost subsidy 2 (€1.45 billion) and the energy cost flat rate 2 ( 0.43 billion €) the budget requirement is expected to increase significantly. An authorization of €1.5 billion is also planned for the energy cost subsidy and the flat rate energy cost allowance.
For the first time, €150 million in national funding in the semiconductor industry is budgeted, as implementation of the European Chips Act is scheduled to begin in 2024. According to the estimate, 18 additional positions are planned in the areas of the Federal Competition Authority (BWB) and competition law. In addition, the budgeted payments for the BWB will increase by €2.4 million to €8.3 million, especially with regard to transparency measures to strengthen competition. Funding in the film industry for FISA+ is expected to increase by €72.4 million to €90.7 million, as the new film funding model introduced in 2023 will be very well received by the film industry. The economic budget also plans to compensate for the loss of examination fees for master craftsmanship and qualification examinations with around €12 million.
In the tourism sector, payments will fall to €62.7 million in 2024 (-€48.0 million), as the COVID-19 protective shield for events (-€44.0 million) in particular will expire and not in 2024 more is budgeted. The main areas of disbursement in this detailed budget relate to the federal government’s membership fee for Austrian (€30 million), commercial tourism promotion (€21 million) and strategic projects to address current tourism policy issues.
Agriculture and Forestry
For the areas of agriculture, forestry, regions and water management, the 2024 budget plan calls for disbursements totaling €3.07 billion (2023: €2.94 billion). Compared to the previous year, this represents an increase of €129.5 million or 4.4%. According to the analysis by the Parliamentary Budget Service, the increase in payments is primarily due to higher payments from the forest fund (+€75.9 million), which was increased and extended until 2027, and additional federal funds amounting to €54.1 million. € for the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) from the newly created “Stimulus Program for Agriculture”. This program is expected to provide a total of €360 million in additional funds between 2024 and 2027.
Education
The budget for the education sector plans to increase funding by €263 million to a total of €11.5 billion for 2024. The increase is due in particular to higher or additional payments for cost reimbursements from the federal government for state teachers (+€315.5 million) and federal staff (+€146.6 million). COVID-19-related payments decrease by -€239.8 million.
As before, in the 2024 budget estimate, personnel expenses in education account for the largest part (85.8%) of the expenditure at €9.89 billion, with the federal government’s transfer expenses for state teachers amounting to €5.1 billion. € is included. The federal government employs around 50,500 people in the education sector, 83.7% of which are federal teaching staff, according to the explanations. At the federal level, there should be 235 more positions in the education sector in 2024 compared to 2023. Around 77,000 active teachers for around 4,800 compulsory school locations are provided by the states, most of whose funding is provided by the federal government. A budget increase of €45.8 million to €690 million is planned for infrastructure. €52.2 million is also budgeted for the “digital school” and for digital devices. In addition to dealing with the effects of the war in Ukraine in the school sector, the 100-school project is also to be continued.
Science and Research
The federal funds for science and research primarily include the financing of the 22 public universities in Austria, student funding and basic research. Part of the funding for technical colleges also comes from the Ministry of Science. In the federal budget for 2024, around €6.42 billion in payments are planned in this budget chapter, which is €479 million more than in the federal budget for 2023. The main impact here is the additional funds for the universities for cost-of-living compensation amounting to €214 million .€ and the valorization of study funding.
youth
As part of the budget for families and youth, the youth area will finally be negotiated on Wednesday. An amendment to the Federal Youth Promotion Act contained in the 2024 budget accompanying law is intended to increase funding for extracurricular child and youth work by 9.7% in order to offset the effects of high inflation. According to the impact assessment, this increase will be reflected in the budget at €650,000 per year, reports the Parliament’s Budget Service. The detailed budget for “youth policy measures” is to increase by a total of €2 million to €12.6 million. According to the Budget Service, this primarily involves funding totaling €10.3 million as part of the federal government’s youth funding program for numerous youth organizations. (Continuation of TOP in the National Council) mbu/gs/kar
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