Is there still a need for the fostered work scheme in Hungary?

The government will allocate an additional 7 billion forints (EUR 17m) for the fostered work scheme this year and 110 billion in 2023, a state secretary of the interior ministry said in an interview published by daily Magyar Nemzet on Wednesday.

Bence Rétvári said the scheme had been one the government’s most successful measures since 2010. “The number of workers included in the programme continued to increase to over 200,000 until 2016, then gradually dropped to 70,000 as a result of economic growth,” he said.

Rétvári said left-wing parties had criticised the programme ever since it was introduced. Recently, “they tried to scare people saying that government funding would be severely cut next year, and so fostered work programmes would sputter. That was, of course, baseless fearmongering,” he said.