Photo: Tanjug/Miloš Milivojević
Danilo Ćurčić from the Initiative for Economic and Social Rights A11 tells the portal "Vremena" that there is a problem of understanding poverty in Serbia, as well as that one of the key problems is the lack of will to solve the issues of poverty and social policy
The International Day against Poverty is celebrated on Tuesday, and according to the data of the Republic Institute of Statistics, in 2022 the poverty risk rate was 20 percent, which means that every fifth resident has an income below the poverty risk threshold.
The poverty risk threshold (monthly average) for a one-member household is 26.509 dinars, while the amount of cash social assistance is 11.122 dinars.
Cash social assistance for an individual constitutes only 41.96 percent of the income that is necessary to cross the threshold of the risk of poverty, according to the announcement of the Initiative for Economic and Social Rights A11.
They further point out that the errors in the state's approach to poverty are most clearly illustrated by the way in which the issue of cash social assistance is regulated. A large number of beneficiaries are entitled to cash social assistance for only nine months of the year, because the Social Protection Act assumes that beneficiaries of working age can earn some income on their own during three months of the year, despite the fact that these people, as a rule, they cannot find a job for the duration of three months. This is how we get to the point that during this break they cannot afford even the most basic necessities.
To make the absurdity even greater, during this break they do not even have the right to a free meal through the soup kitchen, because that right is reserved only for beneficiaries of cash social assistance.
According to RZS data, for a household with two adults and one child under the age of 14, the poverty risk threshold (monthly average) is 47.715 dinars, and for two adults with two children under the age of 14, it is 55.668 dinars.
The rate of risk of poverty or social exclusion in 2022 is 28.1 percent, which is the percentage of people who are at risk of poverty, or are extremely materially and socially deprived, or live in households with very low work intensity.
The Initiative also states that cash social assistance for a three-person household is insufficient to meet the needs covered by the minimum consumer basket.
Cash social assistance for a three-person household without reduction amounts to 20.099 dinars, and the amount of the minimum consumer basket for July 2023 was 52.062,53 dinars.
How to improve the position of the most vulnerable?
In the announcement, they say that unlike cash social assistance, which is adjusted to inflation, all pensions in Serbia from 2020 will be adjusted according to the so-called Swiss formula. This means that pensions are adjusted 50 percent with inflation and 50 percent with the growth of average wages once a year, every January. This adjustment is fairer and better aligned with the cost of living.
Initial calculations show that adjusting cash social assistance according to this formula would provide additional support to the poorest in the fight against rising living costs. In this way, the problem of the inadequacy of social benefits would be answered, at least partially.
Danilo Ćurčić from the Initiative for Economic and Social Rights A11 told the portal "Vremena" that we have a problem with understanding poverty in general and that for more than 10 years there has been a completely wrong perception of poverty, and that people who are in the social protection system are an expense, that they will not to work and the like.
"There are huge questions and there are huge problems, and it is not seen that there is any kind of will on the part of the decision-makers to change something, I think that an additional problem is that the opposition parties are not very interested in the issue of poverty and social policy, and that is one of the key issues today", concludes Ćurčić.
Poverty is a complex phenomenon that is both the consequence of human rights violations and the cause of further human rights violations. Precisely because of this, the suppression of poverty should be of priority importance in all efforts to enable citizens to enjoy economic, social and other human rights, according to the announcement.
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