Poor families to get social aid calculated according to their daily income

Underprivileged families will get financial aid from the state, as the Parliament adopted such a bill in the first reading on Thursday, April 17. The draft law on social assistance is meant to insure a guaranteed minimum income monthly, established in accordance with the family’s need for social assistance, and their average global income, Info-Prim Neo reports. The draft law institutes a new type of social assistance, which will support the family depending on the monthly incomes they get, explains the Social Protection, Family and Child Minister Galina Balmos. The draft introduces a new notion - guaranteed monthly minimum income, which is to be established by the Government. It will be computed on the basis of economic indexes as the minimum salary, the minimum pension. The social assistance the family will get will represent the difference between the guaranteed monthly minimum income and the actual monthly income of a family. The draft provides that the assistance will be granted to the whole family and not to each member. Thus, the subjective element when some families are supported to the detriment others will be excluded, says the chairwoman of the specialized parliamentary commission Valentina Buliga. The assistance will be established for a period not longer than 2 years, and will be reviewed once in six months. Now all the financial assistance is granted in case of belonging to certain social categories, and in providing the social assistance no attention is paid to the living standard and needs of solicitors. The most significant social aid is granted to pay for utilities, being distributed to 11 categories encompassing 262,000 beneficiaries. Several studies point out that establishing the compensations on the principles of belonging to a certain category does not insure streamlining the aid towards the poorest.