The Social Security Institution's (SGK) EU-supported grant of 300 euros per month for up to 36 months for mothers of children between newborn and 24 months old – known as the Child Care at Home Project – will first be applied in Antalya, İzmir and Bursa. In total, 5,000 mothers and 5,000 babysitters will be provided with funding from the grant.
The grant will be provided in order to support working mothers. The Provincial Director of Social Security in Antalya, Selim Erol, stressed that mothers usually have to give up their jobs due to the low wages and limited child care opportunities, and illegal employment in care-taking services is currently around 96 percent.
Erol said that the project includes mothers who have children between newborn to 24 months old and are legally employed, who will return to their job or will enter into the workforce for the first time. "The project has been developed in order to provide an opportunity for mothers to employ babysitters, and will first be applied in Antalya, Bursa and İzmir," Erol added. On average, the grant will provide around 300 euros per month for up to 36 months, and the grant that will be given to mothers who take care of their children on their own, who have disabled kids and who employ certified babysitters will be around 390 euros.
The grant will be offered until the children turn 3-years-old. In Antalya, 1,500 mothers and 1,500 babysitters will benefit from the grant. The budget will be covered by the EU and SGK, and will cost around 38 million euros in total.
The conditions for benefitting from the grant are that the mother and the babysitter must reside in the same city and be Turkish citizens. The mother who applies needs to be legally employed and registered for SGK, even if it is just a day before applying for the grant. Mothers who earn more than TL 2,500 ($977.38) – approximately twice the minimum wage – will be eligible for the grant. The babysitter needs to have at least a primary school education. Also, there cannot be any relationship between the mother and the babysitter, and the mother cannot be declared as a babysitter of another child within the scope of the project.
