"RESTART": the authorities have launched the reform of the social assistance system
The authorities are announcing a wide-ranging reform of the entire welfare system. Minister Alexei Buzu said the system had been through three major crises: the COVID-19 pandemic, the refugee crisis and the energy crisis. As a result, the number of people in need of assistance has increased and the system is not effective in fighting poverty. Interventions by the welfare system reduce poverty by only 5%, and statistics show that every fourth child in the country is in poverty.
"Last autumn alone, my colleagues, social workers, librarians, helped us to register more than 300,000 families in the compensation system. In the context of the refugee crisis, we have implemented several crisis modules, the number of beneficiaries at risk or in difficult situations has increased. And we can all see that the system is at its limits and needs a real restart," said Minister Alexei Buzu.
"Indeed, today, depending on where a young person with a disability, a child without parental care or a lonely elderly person lives, they have unequal access to social services. At the same time, unfortunately, there are too many people with severe disabilities who do not have access to a personal assistant. If we want a truly inclusive society, we need to invest more in social services, and that is what we are going to do. With the implementation of the reform, the whole package of social services is to be funded from the state budget, and this will eliminate the oscillations. By launching this reform, the Ministry wants to address four basic problems: proper management and planning of social services, territorial inequalities in access to social services and benefits, the cost of services and their quality, and the development of human resources in the system," said Dan Perciun, PAS MEP.
