From the 2026 budget audit
A discretionary one-off payment line held flat while real costs rise.
450 millió Ft in one-off assistance payments — frozen in nominal terms, declining in real value as inflation erodes the allocation.
450 millió Ft total — roughly 110 Ft per taxpayer per year, held at today's nominal level.
What you see — and what you don't
The seen: recipients of one-off discretionary payments from the Health Insurance Fund. The unseen: the real-terms reduction in each payment's purchasing power as the nominal allocation stays fixed and prices rise around it.
Objection
"One-off assistance helps people in acute need — freezing it means real cuts to vulnerable recipients."
Answer
The freeze applies to the nominal budget line, not to individual eligibility. This line is immaterial to the chapter total; reforming it separately would cost more than it would save. Real-terms erosion at typical inflation is the bounded, gradual discipline this small discretionary line can absorb without displacing anyone in acute need.
Share if you think small discretionary lines should be held to the same discipline as large ones.
The analyst's verdict
One-Off Assistance (Egyszeri segély)
Rationale
A small discretionary one-off assistance line within the cash-benefit block. At 450.0 millió Ft it is immaterial to the chapter total and the cost of separately reforming it would exceed any saving. It is not an earnings-scaled entitlement and does not carry the structural defect of the three large cash lines. Hold it at nominal level; real-terms erosion at typical inflation does the bounded work.
Transition mechanism
None. Allocation held flat in nominal terms.
Affected groups
Recipients of the discretionary one-off payments; no displacement under a freeze.
Free Society Institute
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