The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, also used the year 2025 to emphasize that the state supposedly cares about to the poorIt was also announced that "a big package of measures for people who live harder".
Some of package size were lower prices of products in stores, cheaper loans, lower prices of firewood, and amendments to the Constitution so that executors in the enforcement procedure cannot take away the living space, the only apartment or the house where the family lives.
The President of Serbia has been repeating the same thing for years, whenever there is a socio-political crisis, which at the moment has been going on for more than a year.
However, how did citizens live in a situation of poverty in 2025? Who are they and how many are there? What is their income? Has the Social Protection Strategy been adopted? Finally, what awaits them in 2026?
Hostages of progressive social policy
According to the data of the Republic Institute of Statistics (RZS) in 2024 (latest data), the poverty risk rate was 19,7 percent. It represents the percentage of people whose income is lower than the poverty risk threshold, which in 2024 was 35.606 dinars per month on average for a one-person household.
The rate of risk of poverty or social exclusion was 24,3 percent. These are people who are at risk of poverty, or are extremely materially and socially deprived, or live in households with very low work intensity.
People aged 65 and over were most at risk of poverty (23,6 percent), as were people aged 55 to 64 (22,7 percent).
Program coordinator of Initiative A 11 Danilo Ćurčić told "Vreme" that little has changed regarding the position of people who are at risk of poverty or social exclusion.
"There are no public policies that would bring changes for the better, the economic system is not favorable to them because they depend on insecure jobs or involvement in the gray economy, they are exploited and at constant risk of violating their rights, while the cost of living crisis is 'solved' by approved decrees and the president's understanding of the world of poverty," explains Ćurčić.
It further indicates that all this does not change anything in the lives of these people.
"They remain hostages of the politics that keep them just enough above water to survive," adds our interlocutor and emphasizes that most opposition actors "fail to work more actively with this group of people and to deal with social issues and poverty as some of the key issues that burden our society today."
The interlocutor of "Vremen" explains that it is crucial that in the absence of policies that would deal with the problems of people in a situation of poverty, there is a kind of "lottery where the government decides to grant certain rights to a certain category of people who are at risk, and then uses the opportunity to present it as a huge step forward for all those people, while showing those who did not get anything that they just need to be patient a little more and it will be time for them to solve their social, housing or other problems".
A decade and a half without a Social Protection Strategy
The last Social Protection Strategy that was adopted was valid from 2005 to 2009. Since then, no new document has been adopted.
The process of drafting the new Strategy began in 2018, and was supposed to be valid from 2019 to 2025. Then, in 2024, an attempt was made to adopt a document that would be valid until 2030, but without success.
Furthermore, the Ministry of Labour, Employment, Veterans and Social Affairs set a one-month deadline for the members of the Strategy Drafting Working Group to draft this act, which is why Initiative A 11 and the Initiative for the Rights of Persons with Mental Disabilities MDRI-S did not participate in the process again.
In a joint statement, Initiative A 11 and MDRI-S stated that a decision on the formation of a working group had arrived at the addresses of their organizations, with the names of new members from the ranks of the ministry, as well as the date by which the finalization of the draft Strategy is requested - December 15, 2025.
"Such moves leave the impression that the draft Strategy has already been prepared behind closed doors," they pointed out at the time.
Ćurčić says that the bottom line is that this strategy is adopted without any consultation or taking into account the experiences of people who use social protection services or who depend on social assistance.
"Without the inclusion of the lived experience of the people who are most invited to speak about what is missing in the state's response to their poverty and social exclusion, there is no question that this strategic document will respond to the accumulated problems in this area," emphasizes our interlocutor.
When asked what this Strategy would bring and what are the consequences of its long-term absence, Ćurčić answers that this is a difficult question because "we do not live in a functional state that has public administration and public policies that have any autonomy to deal with their work without obtaining the approval of the highest political actors, primarily the president of the republic".
That is why he is of the opinion that the Strategy will not bring anything because it will not determine the directions in which Serbia goes when dealing with social protection, but in the best case it will be a list of nice wishes that no one will implement.
"That's because the dominant policy is the one that says that social protection is a big expense for us, that individuals are mostly to blame for their own unfavorable situation, which is why they need the support of society, that they want to 'live on bread, abuse the system and the like,'" explains Ćurčić.
He adds that for all these years of the progressive party's rule, an even more cruel and non-solidarity society has been created for the most vulnerable, which treats them like "parasites who steal public resources because they 'don't want to work' and contribute to the growth of GDP or whatever is the government's focus at that moment."
Not even for survival.
Serbia does not even measure how many people live in absolute poverty. These are citizens who cannot meet their basic needs for food, clothing and a roof over their heads.
As "Vreme" previously wrote, the Government of Serbia had a Team for Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction that measured absolute poverty by the end of 2021. However, since that body no longer exists, we do not know how many absolutely poor people there are in Serbia.
Cash social assistance from October 1, 2025, amounts to 12.266 dinars for an individual, to which 6.133 dinars are added for each adult in the family, and 3.680 dinars for a child. According to this calculation, let's say a family of three receives about 22.000 dinars per month.
That is not even half the amount of the minimum consumer basket, which amounted to 56.868 dinars in August. While the minimum salary for that month (about 51.700 dinars) would also not cover the amount of the minimum consumer basket.
Most pensioners do not live significantly better either. The average pension amount in November was 50.658 dinars, according to the data of the Republic Fund for Pension and Disability Insurance.
While around 124.000 farmers in November lived on a monthly pension, which amounted to an average of 21.978 dinars.
When asked how citizens live with incomes that are minimal or less than the minimum wage, Ćurčić says that citizens live below the level of human dignity and in conditions unfathomable for most citizens - from housing, heating the apartments they live in, the food they eat, access to the health care system, and the like.
"They often depend on one-time or occasional jobs they perform for the daily wage, which is their only source of income, and which is at the same time very insecure. These are conditions that require an urgent response from the state and society as a whole, but they are most often absent, leaving people to fend for themselves," emphasizes our interlocutor.
What awaits citizens in 2026
In September, the Government of Serbia made a decision to increase the minimum wage from January 1, 2026 to 371 dinars per working hour (net), which means that the minimum monthly wage will be around 65.000 dinars.
What can citizens expect in 2026?
"Elections and numerous false promises await them, blackmail that they will lose the little they have, forcing them on buses to go to Napredna Party rallies, promises of a few thousand dinars in exchange for a vote and trade in hope and promises that are anything but what they need to live with dignity."
"That's why I hope that the year 2026 will bring a clearer political articulation of ideas that will bring about a fairer and more humane social policy that puts those who are most vulnerable at the center of events," concludes Ćurčić.
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