Minister of Finance Jyrki Katainen (Nat. Coalition) has expressed his views on scrapping the free full-time day care for the children of low-income parents. In an interview given to the Savon Sanomat daily, Katainen specified that the full-time day care would remain free also in the future for certain groups.
According to Katainen, a ministerial social policy working group will proceed to work out the increases in various municipal service charges. Simultaneously, the groups that the day care charge would apply to will be decided.
"Obviously, cases where there are social problems at home will be excluded from the charge. Or cases where both parents are students, or work at home", Katainen explained.
In Katainen’s view, full-time day care would remain free also for single parents with a very low income.
The government decided in its discussions last week to scrap free full-time day care for the children of low-income parents. The decision was greeted with a torrent of objections from the opposition.
