The UNICEF poverty projection in Serbia for 2023 shows that 12,1 percent of Serbian citizens, about 800.000 people, are in absolute poverty. And for fifteen years, the state has not had a Social Protection Strategy that would improve services and social security. In addition, the system lacks from 700 to 1000 professional staff
Award criteria social assistance in Serbia are strict, the system lacks from 700 to 1000 professional staff, and the Social Protection Strategy for the period from 2019-2025. has not yet been adopted, the assessment of the state of the social protection system at the media conference of the Association of Social Workers of Serbia and the association "Sociativa", writes the New Economy.
"Although the reform of the social protection system was started in 2011, with the aim of improving services and ensuring social security, it has not been fully completed. State allocations for social programs are insufficient, the last strategy was in force in 2009," recalled Scoiative representative Dijana Janković.
She reminded that in 2018, the Ministry of Labor, Veterans and Social Affairs started drafting the Social Protection Strategy for the period from 2019 to 2025, but that it has still not been adopted.
"So, the social protection system has been functioning for 15 years without an umbrella and leading document." This strategy should be aligned with the 2030 sustainable development agenda and should provide a permanent and effective social protection system that will reduce poverty, increase social equality and improve services for vulnerable groups," she said.
The advocacy coordinator of Initiative A 11 is Marko Vasiljević previously for Vreme said that the fact that we do not have a strategy for reducing poverty is already an indication of something.
"We know that those strategic documents are no guarantee that things will improve in a certain area. We have a lot of adopted strategic documents, but they are not actually implemented. However, it is important that they exist. Those strategies often do not contain assessments of the current situation on the basis of which measures and policies can be created to deal with social problems", stated Vasiljević.
Extremely low level of cash social assistance
UNICEF prepared a projection of poverty in Serbia for the year 2023. Data show that 12,1 percent of Serbian citizens - 800.000 people - are in absolute poverty.
"The last information I have is that we currently have around 167.000 beneficiaries of cash social assistance and that since the introduction of the social card, the idea of which was to facilitate the fair distribution of cash social assistance, 44.000 people have been left without it," emphasizes Vasiljević.
One of the members of the group that will be formed for the purposes of developing the Strategy are members of the "Initiative A11" organization. The representative of the Initiative, Uroš Ranđelović, said that, according to the data of the Team for Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction, in 2020, about 6,9 percent of the population in Serbia lived below the poverty line.
"In order to live below the poverty line, consumption per one-member household must not exceed the amount of 12.695 dinars per month." This means that in 2020, 450.000 people in Serbia lived below the poverty line," said Ranđelović.
He added that too strict conditions for receiving social assistance are the direct causes for the large difference in the number of people living below the absolute poverty line.
"These are too strict conditions where any income above the amount of social assistance, which is 11.664 dinars for an individual, automatically disqualifies the individual from this right - except for seasonal work," he said.
Among the conditions set as a limit are movable property that must not exceed the amount of 500 or 600 euros, as well as immovable property over 0,5 hectares.
Inadequate social assistance
Another problem is the one concerning the adequacy of financial social assistance.
The reason for this, he said, is precisely the Law on Social Protection, because the law stipulates that the amount of social assistance is determined according to the consumer price index.
"This means that inflation is observed every year, but of general consumer prices." And in 2021, the price of food will jump significantly more, inflation is significantly higher than general inflation, and because of this, these people effectively have less money and can buy fewer and fewer things with that money," said Randjelovic.
The amount of social assistance for one family member is 11.674 dinars, the other member receives 5.837 dinars, and a child under 18 years of age - 3.502 dinars. These are the data according to the latest inflation adjustment from April 2024. Therefore, the monthly amount for a family of three is 21.013 dinars.
Insufficient number of personnel
In the period from 2020 to 2022, on average, eight centers for social work did not have a single social worker, 21 centers worked without a lawyer, 17 of them without a psychologist, and even 57 without a single pedagogue, the State Audit Institution found.
Vladan Jovanović, a graduated social worker, previously told "Vreme" that there is no system in Serbia that would allow the beneficiary to get social assistance more easily.
"As professional workers, the scope of our work is increasing, we have more and more responsibility, procedures are becoming more complicated, and our capacity to intervene is decreasing. A social worker who did that work in the eighties of the last century, was on the field, knew how each family breathes and recognized the moment when it is necessary to intervene, cannot be compared to us today", Jovanović emphasized.
He added that it is necessary to provide a sufficient number of high-quality professional workers who will more easily recognize cases in which intervention is needed and concluded:
"We have few social workers who are in a bad position, and we want to raise the level of service quality."
Source: New Economy
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