Tag Archives: Social

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Šutar Act

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Šutar Act

Šutare’s law, which enabled the Financial Administration of the Republic of Slovenia (Furs) to collect unpaid fines from recipients of social assistance, will undergo its first changes. New feature in social assistance transfers: One part will be protected from seizure.

Like many other debtors, Krk Roma councilor Dejan Brajdič (left) and former Novo Mesto Roma councilor Zoran Grm (center) were left without social assistance this month.

“My partner and I were left without every cent this month. I’m 60 years old, she’s 55, we’re both sick. I couldn’t even pay for electricity. These days we will go to the Red Cross for help, but I know that they have almost nothing to give there either, because in this system it is not only the Roma who are left without social security, there are also the homeless, many tenants, people with minimum wage and the like,” former Roma councillor Zoran Grm, who was also one of the co-organisers of Tuesday’s Roma protest, which then did not take place, told us these days.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Roma and Social Care

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Roma and Social Care

A good article on Roma in Slovakia. They say:

The Roma issue is not a question of ethnic “cause”, but of social barriers and poverty. Improving living standards, access to education and job opportunities is possible.

Common myths about the Roma, that the majority live in settlements or shantytowns, do not want to work, get an education or have an “innate” tendency towards crime or maladjustment, are wrong. This is confirmed by all relevant facts, research, but often also by common sense.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Roma Protests in Novo Mesto

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Roma Protests in Novo Mesto

The association Vstani Romaski otrok is announcing a rally for Tuesday afternoon at Glavni trg in Novo mesto, with which they will express their disagreement with the social welfare confiscations based on the Šutar Act. They expect between 100 and 300 Roma, who will also present the hardships that some of them have found themselves in due to the aforementioned foreclosures, the president of the association Matej Domijan told STA.

It is not sure they will get an athorisation. The municipality rejected the firstr submission stating that documents were missung, and the association resubmitted the request.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia Roma Program

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Slovakia Roma Program

People are protesting against the proposed governmental Roma proram, to which 17 mio. Euros are allocated.

Former MEP Peter Pollák Sr. pointed out that after conversion, the project comes out to approximately 85 thousand euros per participant, while the result is only a certificate without real benefits. He says that up to nine million euros are to be directed to project management and trainers. He also criticizes the method of preparing the project, which, according to him, was created without expert discussion, involvement of local governments and people from the field.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia: Šutar Act

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Slovenia: Šutar Act

Several articles about the recent impact of the so-called Šutar Act on Roma in Slovenia. Here, the Financial Administration (Furs) explained that in recent days, based on the Act on Urgent Measures to Ensure Public Safety (the so-called Šutar Act), they have issued 1,275 enforcement orders to debtors who had at least three unpaid obligations from misdemeanor claims in the last two years. Enforcement is also permissible for cash social assistance.

Roma representatives have warned about enforcement of social assistance. Several dozen Roma at the bank have not been able to collect part or all of their social assistance because Furs seized it, the president of the Roma Community Council, Jožef Horvat Muc, told the Slovenian Press Agency.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia and Social Benefits

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Slovakia and Social Benefits

“They live on benefits.” A statement that has been repeated in Slovakia for years. Most people associate it with poor people and especially Roma communities. Almost always, when the living standards of the majority population deteriorate, this sentence becomes a shorthand description of the social system in political debates and on social networks.

This is a myth. “When people talk about the social system, they usually mean benefits for the unemployed. However, they forget that the largest part of it is pensions and healthcare,” pointed out Viliam Páleník, a researcher at the Institute of Economics of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and president of the Employment Institute.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia, Roma, and Unemployment

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Slovenia, Roma, and Unemployment

The Municipality of Kočevje in Slovenia is investing extensive and long-term efforts in Roma integration, especially in the field of preschool education, but Mayor Gregor Košir warns that without changes at the state level there will be no real breakthrough. He says “As long as it is not worth it for people to work, we can forget about Roma integration”.

He is putting the carriage in front of the ox. As long as there is no prospect of work, there is no integration …

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia, Education, and Social Help

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Slovenia, Education, and Social Help

Although primary education is compulsory in Slovenia, some individuals do not complete it. The issue is particularly acute in the Roma community, as according to Amnesty International, more than 60% of Roma in Slovenia have not completed primary education. Among the initiatives to the government was a proposal that primary education would be mandatory if individuals wanted to draw on state forms of assistance and allowances and, in general, the benefits offered by the state.

But the Ministry of Labor, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities rejects the proposal. They explained (rightly so):

“The purpose of all forms of social assistance, supplements (child, care) and other benefits and subsidies is to ensure a basic level of social security for residents. The condition of being tied to education could constitute discrimination and a violation of the principle of equality before the law.”

Bulgaria News Eastern Europe

Sad

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Sad

A sad story from Bulgaria. A 15-year-old girl was admitted to the emergency room with severe pain and suspected acute kidney crisis. After the examinations, however, the doctors established the surprising cause of her condition – the teenager was nine months pregnant and already had a dilation.

The medical team immediately took action and the birth began almost immediately. Not long after, little Emilia cried in the maternity ward. Both the mother and the newborn are in good general condition and under medical supervision.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Social Support

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Social Support

In a country, Slovenia, where Roma are represented as abusing social help, being criminals, and not working, the case presented in this article doesn’t help.

The mayor of Brežice, Ivan Molan, told the media that they encountered an extraordinary problem in regulating the issue of property rights Roma in the municipality. He also revealed a case where the father of one of the Roma families with seven children receives social support higher than his salary, and at the same time they have been living in impossible conditions their entire lives.

Bad.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Roma Settlements

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Roma Settlements

The councillors of the Municipality of Beltinci, Slovenia, approved the regulations that will specify to whom and for what the funds to improve the situation of the Roma community will be allocated. Beneficiaries will have to have settled obligations to the kindergarten, school, utility company and municipality – both in the previous and current year. The property will have to be included in the waste collection system, and a building permit will also be required for construction.

Needless to say, this will disqualify many needy families.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Work, or …

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Work, or …

The Dolenjska People’s Initiative, which brings together six people’s initiatives from the Dolenjska region and one from the Ljubljana region, last week presented a proposal for a program for the social and work activation of employees, which would also regulate the employment of Roma. Basically, Roma would need to enrol in special training centres where the unemployed would gain experience and vocational education, and financial social assistance would be tied to participation.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia: Work or …

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Slovakia: Work or …

The Slovak Ministry of Labour is pushing ahead with the Work instead of Benefits initiative that foresee a stop of benefits if people refuse a job offer. So far, they have sent 13’000 job offers and 77 people are now at risk of losing their benefits as they refused an offer.

They are also creating new positions for Roma assistants have also been created at labour offices. Their task is to help with communication and reduce barriers between clients and offices.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia and Social Benefits

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Slovakia and Social Benefits

Movement Slovakia criticizes amendment on benefits, calls measure an attack on Roma. According to opposition MP Peter Pollák, the measure deepens poverty, discriminates against Roma and the government uses it to save on the most vulnerable.

The amendment to the Employment Services Act, which includes the Work Instead of Benefits initiative, deprives thousands of the poorest people of material need benefits, according to opposition MP Peter Pollák (Movement Slovakia, For the People, KÚ). “Instead of giving people a ladder, the government is taking away the last thing they have – less than 90 euros per month. That is the last safety net for the poorest. Meanwhile, family expenses are rising due to government consolidation, food and energy are becoming more expensive, and the government is saving on those who have the least,” said Pollák.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia: Welfare Reform

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Czechia: Welfare Reform

The Czech Welfare Reform committee adopted changes to the current laws on welfare, including a potential increase of support, expanding the scope of the welfare, and some weakening of sanctions for people who break the rules.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia and Social Benefits

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Slovakia and Social Benefits

The Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family (MPSVR) of the Slovak Republic presented a specific bill regulating the reduction of social benefits in the event that a person able to work refuses to work. The discussion on the withdrawal of social benefits began in the middle of last year.

The issue here? Roma. And the work that the ministry is proposing is very much in line to what is being done in Hungary, so called közmunka [communal / public work] meaning cheap labour based on 19th century technology.

Bad.

News Eastern Europe Slovenia

Slovenia and the Roma “Problem”

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The Slovenian opposition NSi proposes tightening criminal legislation for more serious crimes committed by minors, while the country’s president Nataša Pirc Musar warns against organizing municipals guards.

Czech Republic News Eastern Europe

Czechia: Agency for Social Affairs

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Citizen members of the Government Council for Roma Minority Affairs and representatives of the organization RomanoNet today issued a statement calling on the government of the Czech Republic to immediately suspend all decisions regarding the future of the Agency for Social Inclusion (ASZ) and to start a broad public discussion about its future. They stated that the participation of Roma in the ASZ is only a formal one.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia, Roma, and Social Benefits

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Another article in the Slovak press about a survey on social benefits that dismantles the misconception that financial support for Roma is the main cause of high taxes and public finance deficits in Slovakia. This is a widespread myth in that country.

The survey checked that tamilies with more than three children receive 45 million euros a year through child allowance and parental allowance, which is just a drop in the ocean compared to total public spending. The number of children was chosen as a proxy, as ethnicity is not recorded in the statistics. The reasoning is that while not all families with more than three children are Roma, this will contain many of them.

News Eastern Europe Slovakia

Slovakia, Roma, and State Finances

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A new study in Slovakia dispels the myth that the social benefits that Roma get is one of the main burden of the state and that this is the reason for high taxes. According to the study, families with more than three children, which often include Roma families, receive approximately 27 million euros per year in benefits in material need and additional payments. “This is the same amount that the government allocated for the construction of the National Football Stadium,” the report said.

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