Translated material
Benefits at address
Lukashenko reforms social policy
Yesterday, the Belarusian authorities took the first step towards reforming the social assistance system. A law has come into force that significantly reduces the amount of social benefits. At the same time, a presidential decree was promulgated on providing targeted support to low-income citizens.The cumbersome benefits system was part of the Belarusian economic model, which President Alexander Lukashenko called “market socialism” in the late 1990s. In essence, state policy was reduced to copying the Soviet model as much as possible. According to the state news agency BELTA, until now there were more than 100 types of social benefits in the country, which were provided to 50 categories of recipients. In total, more than 67% of Belarusians enjoyed benefits.
The situation has changed after the rise in prices for Russian energy resources since the beginning of this year. In the spring, government officials first started talking about the need to optimize the system of social benefits. One of the main arguments was its ineffectiveness. In 2001-2006, “the poorest recipients of benefits accounted for 17.2% of the total amount, and the richest - 22%. As a result, the most affluent received 1.3 times more benefits than the least affluent,” says BELTA. At the end of 2006, the Ministry of Statistics conducted a sample survey of households. It turned out that the average amount of benefits was about $6 per family per month.
Since yesterday, benefits have been reduced for various categories of citizens, including veterans, pensioners, students, disabled people, liquidators of the consequences of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident, and for children under three years of age. The volume of state aid for travel, purchasing medicines, and paying for utilities has been reduced. Now a resident of Belarus will be able to receive a monthly social benefit if his income does not exceed the subsistence level. If a citizen’s income is no more than 20% higher than this indicator, he is entitled to a one-time benefit. This year the Belarusian cost of living is about $87 per month.
Experts find it difficult to assess the impact of innovations on the lives of low-income Belarusians. “The family will have to provide certain documents in order to receive social benefits, which really makes the benefit system more targeted. And there is a positive moment in this,” Alexander Chubrik, an economist at the research center of the Belarusian Institute of Privatization and Management, told Vremya Novostey. At the same time, he noted that changes in social policy can still hardly be called a reform, since only part of the benefits was transferred to the principle of targeting.
“It is still impossible to talk about systemic changes in social policy. Today there is no concept of reforming the pension system, education and healthcare,” says Chubryk. The expert is confident that a full-fledged reform of the social sphere is possible only if market reforms are carried out, including the restructuring of enterprises, the development of private business and the attraction of foreign investment. “The rise in prices for Russian energy resources undoubtedly forced the government to take certain steps towards reforms. But for now the government is trying to make cosmetic amendments without changing the system,” the VN interlocutor emphasized.