Romania, the country of inequalities. Over 45% of the residents of the village are at risk of poverty, and one in five children falls asleep, a study of the World Vision shows. For example, in Râmnicelu commune in Buzău, 20% of people depend on the minimum help of inclusion. Even so, the discussion about social aid is often reduced to clichés, far from the realities in the field.
According to the information published by the Ministry of Labor and Social Solidarity for 2022, reported by ANPIS, social assistance to ensure the minimum guaranteed income was worth 102.3 million euros. For a month, this means about 8.5 million euros.
“The analyzes show that the socio-economic benefits to integrate into the labor market, at a gross minimum wage, these categories of persons through the social insertion companies are almost four times higher than what is spent from the state budget at the moment. to the help ”, He declares for Adevărul, Cristina Bîcîilă, general director of the Association without borders (AFF).
However, the number of inactive people in the labor market remains constantly high. More precisely, she adds, for ten years, the number of minimum guaranteed beneficiaries is around 150,000.
A Romania of the gaps
“The discussion about social aids in Romania is often reduced to clichés about fraud or dependence. The reality of the land shows us something else: Romania is a state of inequalities, where, although between 2015 and 2020 the poverty rate has reduced from 27.8% to 10.7%, 75% of the people in poverty live in the rural area (World Bank) The risk of poverty remains among the highest in the EU, at 22.6% in 2020. More serious, almost half of the people in the last 40% of the income distribution do not work, and another 28% live from subsistence agriculture ”explains the general director AFF.
The AFF Association has developed the Bio & Co social farm, a social insertion enterprise located in the village of Ciocănari, just 40 kilometers from Bucharest. This is where ecological vegetables are produced, but the main mission is a social one: offering jobs and support integrated to people in difficulty, people who have been long -term unemployed, without housing or family support.
“The farm exists because these people cannot enter the conventional labor market, but they need an environment where they gradually regain their confidence, pace and skills to reintegrate. Here we intervene-to break the vicious circle in which the lack of a home, health or education prevents them from working, The insertion loses their confidence in their own forces after years of marginalization and rejection, and the surrounding communities look at them with suspicion and stigmatize them. says Bîcîilă.
The success rate of insertion programs carried out by AFF is 60%. Among the examples of success are the story of Dorina, a woman who has been facing years in a row with the lack of a stable and severe weight. Through the socio-professional insertion program, she benefited from counseling, medical support and access to decent work at Remesh Workshop, where she rediscovered her tailoring skills. With the support of the counselors, he gradually regained his confidence and managed to overcome the fears that blocked it. Today, Dorina has a work contract in a hotel in Bucharest, a success that shows that when vulnerable people are supported and respected, they can build a new beginning.
Another example shows the size of the problem at local level. “The inhabitants of Ciocănari, where our farm is located, could theoretically go to work in Bucharest, but the cost of the shuttle would consume a significant part of the salary. In these conditions, the local insertion, through social economy, becomes a realistic solution,” Points Cristina Bîcăilă.
The stigma of vulnerability
According to him, in the public space there is an increasing tendency to “blame vulnerable groups for their own vulnerability”.
“It is a superficial and unfair approach. You cannot ask a man to compete on a peer to the labor market if he lacks the minimum conditions: a decent home, access to hygiene and health services, the chance to rest his child and to give them a space to do his homework. The social economy is a part of the solution. Romania, the social insertion enterprises, such as Bio & Co, can transform social benefits into fiscal contributions: instead of the state to pay about 50 euros per month, each person integrated on the labor market generates fiscal income of over 200 euros. Coherent and integrated public: to treat simultaneously the problem of living, health, education and employment.
Social aid is not a laziness award, but a minimum safety net. What is missing are long-term investments in social economy and socio-professional insertion, as recognized and supported public services. Only in this way will we be able to move from a Romania of the inequalities to a Romania of the real chances for all ”she adds.
On the other hand, the economist Andrei Caramitru warns on his Facebook page that “empathetic” social aids produce adverse effects: working people who prefer financial support instead of employment, black work so as not to lose the benefits, fraud networks around the higher benefits and incorrect stimuli related to children. “Many who could work will prefer not to work and receive aid (especially if they have small extra stuff: money from the cousin in Italy, chickens in the yard, etc.),” writes Caramitru. He adds that “that’s why I am on the principle of zero aid. You have to be responsible. The help yes, the help of finding work. And if you are hungry you accept any job in any salary if you do not go your head, but you receive help to learn the job. Why do others who work have to give you money to do nothing? concludes Andrei Caramitru.
At the same time, recently, the Minister of Labor, Florin Manole, stated that Romania “does not have too many socially assisted“And that the minimum revenues – between 346 and 879 lei per month -“do not allow a living without work”He recognizes the existence of frauds, but insists that the problem is not the number of beneficiaries, but the lack of controls and incomplete criteria. “Unemployment aid is not a apple, it is a legitimate and necessary social protection,” Handle Manole.
Thus, while in the online environment there are voices that require the drastic restriction of financial support, on the ground, the figures and examples show a fragmented Romania, where the social assistance remains for hundreds of thousands of people the only minimum safety net.
Where most beneficiaries are
Starting with January 1, 2024, the social assistance and the allowance for the support of the family have been combined in a single mechanism, the minimum inclusion income, the current financial support granted to persons and families in difficulty.
Over 259,000 Romanians benefited from the minimum inclusion income, the new social support that replaced social assistance and the family support.
According to the data of the Ministry of Labor, 259,418 persons benefited from this support in 2024. The legislation, however, stipulates that the persons who receive VMI will carry out activities of local interest and to seek a job through the territorial agencies for employment. 14,855 beneficiaries refused these obligations and lost the right to help.
The highest values were recorded in Dolj (15,310), Bacău (12,820), Buzău (11,643), Suceava (11,537) and Teleorman (11,292). At the local level, the situation is even stronger: in Râmnicelu (Buzău), 876 of the 4,726 inhabitants, that is, almost 20%, live from the minimum inclusion income. Other examples are Valea Moldovei (Suceava), with 832 beneficiaries, and Slobozia Bradului (Vrancea), with 777.
From March 1, 2024, the monthly amount of the aid was established at 346 lei for a single person, 504 lei for a person over 65 years and 879 lei for a family with children. The amounts are indexed annually according to inflation, to keep their real value.
