Spend on social protection rose by 4% in Latvia last year, to €7.08 billion, new data from the country’s official statistics portal has found.
This was largely driven by increased measures to compensate for energy price increases, as well as spending on housing allowances, which rose by 60.3% to €47 million.
According to the Latvian government, the number of housing allowance recipients rose by 6,800 last year, to 79,900 (up from 73,100).
Disability and old age services
Expenditure on disability services also grew by 15.7%, largely due to higher remuneration for personal assistants and additional support for people with disabilities to cover electricity, natural gas, and heating costs.
Spending on old age services increased by 13.6%, with old-age pensions accounting for the largest portion of this category (88.8%), primarily boosted by pension index adjustments.
‘ Increased expenditure on this function was also affected by state measures for the reduction of exceptional increase in energy resource prices, which provided stronger support to people at retirement age,” the statistics body said.
A number of areas saw a reduction in social protection expenditure – spending on social exclusion dropped by 22.2% (due, in part, to a reduction in social assistance to Ukrainian refugees), while expenditure on family and children fell by 10%.
Spending on health care also declined by 6.6%, with reduced expenditure on outpatient care and sickness benefits after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Percentage of GDP
In terms of GDP percentage, social protection expenditure in Latvia accounted for 17.9% of the GDP in 2023, the highest among the Baltic countries, although this is down 0.8 percentage points on the previous year.
Per capita expenditure on social protection also increased by 4.1%, reaching €3,717 last year, compared to a 4.8% increase in Lithuania (to €4,053) and a 2.2% increase in Estonia (to €4,259). Read more here.
