The government will try and secure budget funds to increase allowances for parents of children with special needs, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic announced on Friday, saying he will meet with their representatives next week.

“We… will meet with the parents’ representatives on Monday and find a solution to meet their demands. We are yet to see what the effect on the budget will be,” Plenkovic said, adding that there were around 5,100 children with special needs in Croatia.

He noted that his government had already made major changes by increasing maternity allowances.

The prime minister’s invitation to talks comes after the Sjena association for families of children with difficulties said it would stage a protest outside the Social Policy Ministry in early September, according to the association’s vice-chair, Suzana Resetar.

Topics other than the allowance, which currently amounts to less than 2,400 kuna (€319), could be opened at the talks as well, she said.

“We do not want to be charity cases that depend on the allowance. We want adequate social services for our children, such as lessons with speech specialists or psychologists paid for by the state, as well as medicines and medical devices,” Resetar told the Croatian state news agency Hina, noting that currently those services are paid for fully or up to 50 percent by parents, many of which have problem coping with the financial burden.

In addition to quality health services, parents of children with special needs also want the state to secure adequate education for all such children, which would make them more competitive on the labour market and reduce their dependence on the state allowance.

“We even have problems when enrolling children in primary schools,” Resetar said, adding that parents were frequently told that schools did not have the conditions or capacity to organise classes for children with special needs.

She noted that an additional problem was that the state treated all parents of children with special needs the same, without taking into account the total number of children they have, the number of children with special needs or disabilities, their housing conditions, working conditions, etc.

“If you have a sick child, the state removes you from the labour market and pushes you into extreme poverty. It does not support motherhood at all,” said Resetar.