Since the launching of the programme, more than 1500 people have received housing allowance provided for people whose workplace is at a large distance from their permanent residence, Minister of State for Employment Affairs Sándor Czomba said at a press conference.

Sándor Czomba welcomed the 1500th beneficiary of the programme, a young man working for a company which leases cleaning machinery, at a storage facility in Budapest and pointed out that the Hungarian Government has recently launched several employment-boosting programmes.

Among these, the housing allowance scheme for those whose workplace is situated at a substantial distance from their place of residence is an adequate solution for people who wish to stay in Hungary, but cannot find a job close to their homes.

He stressed that although a similar programme had already existed under the previous government, only four people utilized it in 2004 and six people in 2006. That scheme had not been too practical, as only some thousands of forints per month could be obtained as allowance, and that is why the current Government transformed it.

Sándor Czomba reiterated that the programme will be continued. No request has been or will be turned down due to lack of resources, as the fund is “open-ended”, he said. “In the long term we aim to get jobs to the places with abundant labour force,” he emphasised. The free entrepreneurial zones, which intend to stimulate job creation in regions with low employment rates, were opened in this spirit at the beginning of last year and since then more than 200 new jobs have been established in them, the Minister of State pointed out.

The housing allowance is utilizable for up to 18 months, and the maximum amount of the benefit in the first six months is HUF 100 thousand, in the second six months HUF 60 thousand and in the last six month HUF 40 thousand.

(Ministry for National Economy)