Georgian Prime Minister Mamkuka Bakhtadze announced today that the social protection allowance for vulnerable children under the age of 16 and for families with children will be increased by 400%.

Speaking at a press conference before opening the governmental session, Bakhtadze explained that the increase in social protection will cover 140,000 vulnerable children. The change, he promised, will be included in the 2019 state budget.

"The main priority of our political team has always had people as our main value. Very significant changes were made in terms of social policy under our government, including on health care. First of all, I would like to underline the universal health care and insurance systems, but as for our social protection policy, we noted that we would have significant changes in this direction. Today, unfortunately, there still are many children who need special attention and care from the state. We are fully aware of the fact that the existing system of child protection needs to be changed. We have developed a new system based on UNICEF's recommendations. The social allowance for vulnerable children under 16 and families with children will be increased 5 times. The allowance will be increased to 50 GEL," said Bakhtadze.