The Constitutional Court was asked by a Vilnius court to look at a provision in the Law on Sickness and Maternity Social Insurance that limits the maximum compensatory salary based on which the amount of a maternity payment is calculated to 3.2 times the current year’s insured income, which currently amounts to 1,523.2 euros.
Under Lithuania’s state social insurance model, contributions to the state social insurance fund Sodra are used for payments to current benefit recipients, rather than to future recipients. Some of the current recipients have not paid enough taxes to cover the payments made to them, the Constitutional Court said.
The ceiling on benefits helps ensure at least the minimum amount of maternity/paternity pay to the lowest income earners, it said.