State social support and the European Union

Help and support to a family is dissimilar in different countries according to the predominant principles in their social policy. The aim of this work is to give a synopsis of the current financial allowances to families in several countries of the European Union and to outline the dissimilarities among them. The partial aim is to point at the inadequate solutions in the state social support system in the Czech Republic and to suggest some more suitable solutions. Diploma work was created by means of the method of the qualitative research with the use of the secondary data analysis. The main body comprises five EU member states chosen by the method of the casual selection, regarding to their family policy system (Great Britain, Sweden, Germany, Spain and Slovakia). Information was acquired from several foreign language sources, largely from web sites of the competent departments, and international sources (MISSOC, EURES). Acquiring actual information wasn't always easy because different sources provided dissimilar information. It has figured out that the most important benefit for families is the child allowance, which is paid out in all studied countries. The criteria for the calculation of its rate are different {--}the age of a child, the sequence of a child in a family, the income of a family (only in the Czech Republic), eventually health disability of a child. The next benefit provided is the parental allowance, which is paid out only in three surveyed countries (Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovakia), it is paid out in Sweden too, but from parental insurance. The payment of benefits in Germany depends on the monthly income of a family; however, in the Czech Republic and Slovakia a parent, that cares for a child, can support his family without a financial limit, but it is not easy to coordinate work and the care for the family in the Czech Republic, because only small percentage of women has the opportunity to get part-time jobs. In my opinion, we can find the inspiration how to relieve the national budget from costs on payment of parental allowance in Swedish social insurance system, which is financed by contributions from employers, employees and taxes