Prishtina, 30 August 2019
Minister of Labour and Social Welfare, Mr Skender Reçica through a press conference today launched in public consultations the Concept Document for reform of the Social Assistance Scheme, document that is directly related to the social protection of the citizens of the Republic of Kosova.
Minister Reçica said that analyses on social assistance legislation show that the current law no longer coincides with the country’s socio-economic circumstances and is in some cases discriminatory for beneficiary families, with criteria that have created difficulties for the social welfare of these families because families that are moving from the social scheme have continued to be poor or close to the poverty line.
“With the new Concept Document we intend to draft a new law based on European and regional standards and best practices, with the main aim of eliminating the poverty in Republic of Kosova,” emphasized Minister Reçica.
he Minister said that the Draft Law will eliminate the discriminatory criteria, such as the age of a child of five years, will eliminate the categories of social assistance (categories I and II), will change the equivalence rate for calculating the monthly amount on the basis of size and demographic structure of households economy, child support allowances for families of children up to 18 years of age will be installed, social assistance beneficiaries who are capable of work will be engaged, including regular work, vocational training, active labour market measures, without interruption of assistance for a fixed period of time.
“In the new law of social assistance scheme there will be no exclusionary filters for poor families as in the current law. The number of people who will benefit from the Social Assistance Scheme will increase from 106,416 to 167,766, or from 24,000 families to over 27,000 families, due to the increase in the proportion of larger households benefiting from SAS, with the removal of filters in on the basis of categories, while the number of children up to the age of 18 who receive benefits will be around 70,000.
The Concept Document for the Social Assistance Scheme will be in public consultation for 15 days on the MLSW electronic platform.