Photo: Wolfgang van de Rydt/Pixabay
The sharp decrease in the number of recipients of social assistance, which coincides with the introduction of the Social Card Law, is in sharp contrast to the high rates of absolute poverty in Serbia, which amounts to seven percent of the total population
Adra and Brane are a young couple with four children who live in Belgrade. They lost their social assistance in April 2023 because it was determined in the register of social cards that Brane had 100.000 dinars in his bank account. writes Radio Free Europe.
Brane was in the process of challenging this decision when Amnesty International researchers interviewed him.
"I was surprised." 100.000 dinars? I've never seen so much money. The only money we get is the social assistance we receive every month. I don't even have a bank account," he told Amnesty, as reported by RSE.
A few weeks later he was able to get information from the IRS and prove it wrong.
This is one of several examples documented by Amnesty in an extensive report on the impact of the Social Card digital register on users in Serbia, published on December 4.
Worsening of existing problems
The report states that the introduction of a digital register in March 2022 into an already inadequate social assistance system only exacerbated already existing problems and further limited people's access to social protection.
Amnesty International's report is part of a broader investigation by this international organization into the use of automated or algorithmic technologies in the public sector and their implications for human rights.
The report is based on the research of public reports and documents, a review of the files of five people who were in the appeal process and detailed interviews with 21 recipients of social assistance in Serbia, all of whom lost their support after the introduction of the Social Card Law and interviews with social workers and officials. and representatives of civil society.
Half a million people below the poverty line
The National Assembly of Serbia adopted the Social Card Law in February 2021 as part of the country's Economic Reform Program. By September 2023, it entered into force in 167 cities and towns, and began to be implemented in almost all centers for social work throughout the country.
Although the Government of Serbia presented the Law on the Social Card as a tool for fairer and more efficient delivery of social assistance, the law had the opposite effect, Amnesty estimates.
The sharp decrease in the number of social assistance recipients, which coincides with the introduction of the law, is in stark contrast to the high rates of absolute poverty in Serbia, which amounts to seven percent of the total population.
This means that almost half a million people live below the poverty line of 12.500 dinars per month and are unable to meet their basic needs.
You can read the full text of RSE HERE
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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
