District heads and deputy heads were informed about the implementation of the reform in the social assistance sector and the mechanism for providing social benefit and cold-month allowances in a meeting with representatives of the central authorities. Minister of Labor, Social Protection and Family Valentina Buliga said the country’s population will be informed about the reform by a video and by advertisements that will be placed on billboards in every district, IPN reports.

Valentina Buliga said the objective of the authorities is to include the families in difficulty and experiencing extreme poverty in the state assistance system as these families must be helped to faster overcome the difficulties and to become reintegrated into the social and economic spheres.

The social benefit is a temporary allowance for the poorest families intended to help them overcome the difficulties they face. As many as 56,300 families received social benefit in 2013. Another 72,900 families benefited from cold-month allowances.

About 500 million lei was earmarked this year for providing social benefit, while 254 million lei for offering cold-month allowances. From November 1 this year, the state guaranteed minimum income, based on which the social benefit is calculated, will be raised from 680 lei to 700 lei.