Serbia is among the countries with the highest inequality in Europe, countries in which households are extremely financially burdened by housing costs, and is the only country in the region that has not organized any special social policy measures for the poorest during the first wave of the corona crisis.
The statement adds that these are the data with which Serbia welcomes this year’s October 17, World Poverty Day, and enters a new phase of the economic and health crisis caused by the coronavirus epidemic.
“The burden of the crisis in our country will be paid by the poorest among us, and that is the decision of this country. The fact that the Serbian government, the only one in the region, has not adopted any social policy measures to protect the most endangered shows that it is a conscious decision,” said Danilo Curcic from A11.
In the countries in the region, there were special measures to protect the most vulnerable
World Bank figures, quoted by the Serbian government’s Social Inclusion and Poverty Reduction Team, say that Northern Macedonia, Albania and Kosovo have expanded the range of social assistance beneficiaries during the covid crisis, and that Northern Macedonia has extended its energy supplement entitlement by five months.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, some local governments provided financial assistance to the socially disadvantaged, in Kosovo for three months additional financial assistance was paid to pensioners with the lowest pensions, to households without formal income and to workers who lost their jobs during that period. Albania subsidized workers who lost their jobs with 300 euros.
“But poverty in Serbia is ubiquitous and the victims of poverty are not only the most socially vulnerable citizens. It is a huge percentage of the population, perhaps even the majority who work for a minimum or less, without adequate protection of their economic and social rights,” he added in the statement.
On the occasion of the Day of the Fight against Poverty, A11 reminds that:
The minimum wage in Serbia is 270 euros and is received by about 350,000 workers, which is about 15 percent of employees. For the sake of comparison, in Slovenia the minimum amount is received by 4 and in Croatia by 2% of employees. In Slovenia, the minimum wage is around 900 euros and is only 300 euros lower than the average salary (source UGS “Independence”).
The minimum consumer basket is 310 euros and, although paradoxically, it is higher than the minimum wage.
The 20 percent of the richest have ten times the equivalent income (household income distributed to members) than the 20 percent of the poorest.
According to the Commitment to Reduce Inequality Index, Serbia ranks last in Europe and 84th on the list of 154 countries in the world.
66% of households in Serbia are financially burdened with housing costs (Eurostat, 2018).
Last year, there were 226,897 social assistance beneficiaries in Serbia.
The nominal amount of financial social assistance for an individual in Serbia is 75 euros.
Tens of thousands of social assistance beneficiaries were forced into free forced labor in order not to lose the right to social assistance. Such a concept of “work activation” is not known anywhere in Europe
The A11 initiative therefore calls on the government to redistribute the burden of the crisis by implementing a more responsible social policy, reduce growing inequality in society and reduce poverty in Serbia, and calls on citizens to fight openly and fearlessly for their economic and social rights, Nova Ekonomija reports.
