The Turkish Parliament's General Assembly approved the first six articles of a bill proposing changes to social services and certain laws. The regulation includes significant changes regarding maternity leave, foster families, and social benefits.
Under the bill, an amendment to the Civil Servants Law will increase the paid postnatal leave period for female civil servants from 8 weeks to 16 weeks. Thus, a female civil servant will be granted a total of 24 weeks of maternity leave, comprising 8 weeks before and 16 weeks after birth.
A female civil servant who documents with a doctor's report that her health is suitable for work may, if she wishes, continue her duties until the last two weeks of the 8-week prenatal period. In this case, the unused prenatal leave can be transferred to the postnatal period.
The bill also introduces a new leave entitlement for foster families. A civil servant who becomes a foster parent to one or more children, either with a spouse or alone, will be granted 10 days of leave upon request after the child is placed with them.
The amendment to the Social Services Law aims to strengthen the foster family model. A provision has been added to the bill to cover voluntary insurance premiums for foster families without social security, in order to support the upbringing of children under state protection in a family environment.
In this context, for families under a foster family contract where one spouse works less than 30 days a month or does not work full time, a certain portion of the premium paid under voluntary insurance will be covered by adding it to monthly payments upon submission of a payment document. This premium support will continue even in the event of the death of the spouse of the person benefiting from this provision.
Among the provisions added to the bill is the inclusion of donations of food, cleaning supplies, clothing, and fuel to Darülaceze within the income tax exemption. It also stipulates that legal interest will be the basis for the recovery of undue payments under the law concerning monthly allowances for needy, frail, and destitute Turkish citizens aged 65 and over.
If documents prepared for entitlement to the allowance are found to be inaccurate, the paid allowances will be recovered with legal interest from the date of payment to the date of collection. Criminal proceedings will also be initiated under general provisions against those who prepared and used such documents.
Definitions for "Specialized Children's Homes Site," "Children's Homes Site," "Child Protection Initial Response and Assessment Center," "Specialization," "Social and Economic Support," "Foster Family," and "Central Monitoring System" are also being added to the Social Services Law.
The scope under the "social and economic support" clause is also being broadened. While the aim is to support children alongside their families or relatives without placing them in institutional care, the upper limit of this aid is capped at the highest civil servant salary and will be determined according to age and education level.
Temporary economic support can be provided for a maximum of two years. One-time economic support can be granted at most twice a year and may be up to three times the designated amount. This support can be applied to a maximum of two individuals within the same family.
The provision stipulates that, as a rule, the support will continue until the child reaches the age of 18. Young people whose protection order or care measure ends due to reaching the age of majority, and those who turn 18 while benefiting from social and economic support and continue uninterrupted formal higher education, may benefit from this opportunity until they turn 25.
The determination of beneficiaries, as well as the procedures, principles, and durations of payments, will be regulated by a regulation to be issued by the Ministry of Family and Social Services. If it is determined that a person obligated to care for a child under the Turkish Civil Code has wrongfully benefited without meeting the conditions, the amount paid will be recovered.
After the approval of the first six articles of the bill, Deputy Speaker of the Turkish Parliament Tekin Bingöl recessed the session. Following the recess, the session was adjourned until 14:00 because the commission was not present in the chamber.
