The Prague Post Online: News: Social aid revamped and trimmed

November 20th, 2008

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Social aid revamped and trimmed

Politicians plan food stamps and benefit cuts for recipients

By Hilda Hoy
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
March 28th, 2007 issue

As municipal and national politicians unveil new strategies for aiding the poor and homeless, critics are roundly denouncing those plans, saying they take the wrong approach.

Vouchers are slated to replace cash welfare payments in three Prague districts in the coming weeks, and Labor and Social Affairs Minister Petr Nečas has taken notice.

The Civic Democratic Party (ODS) minister will monitor the success of the Prague initiatives and hopes to introduce welfare vouchers on a national level by 2010, spokesman Jiří Sezemský said.

Distributing these vouchers — redeemable for food and necessities like clothing and toiletries — instead of cash would greatly reduce fraud, Prague 6 spokesman Martin Šálek said.

“We have around 140 people [on welfare], and we know about 80 of them we are going to give the vouchers to because, instead of buying food, they use their welfare money to buy alcohol and cigarettes,” he said.

Sezemský agrees welfare fraud is a major problem. “But vouchers aren’t the only possible solution. It’s also possible to toughen the sanctions for abuse,” he said.

Municipalities in Germany that introduced vouchers also experienced another side benefit: The number of claimants decreased, Šálek said.

But the plan is not without its opponents. Zdeněk Škromach, deputy chair of the opposition Social Democrats (ČSSD), served as labor and social affairs minister until his party lost last the election last June.

At a March 16 press conference, Škromach called Nečas’ plan “social racism.”

“Such a system evades the problem and does not help solve it,” he told The Prague Post.

Because social workers and clerks will be deciding which individuals should receive vouchers — those who are risks for welfare fraud — the system will not be objective, he said.

The ČSSD prefers to emphasize field work and targeted aid, rather than giving handouts, he said. “The vouchers will not enable these people to buy what they need, and they will be forced to buy in certain shops. It could be a source of corruption.”

Petr Hána, mayor of the Prague 12 district where vouchers will be rolled out in early April, agrees that politics have played into the issue. “We have been pondering this possibility for some 10 years, but the legislation did not enable such a system. But, now, the political environment is different with the new government,” he said.

A helping hand?
Everyone wins with the voucher system, Sezemský says.

“This should motivate people to look for jobs … and, by doing so, the state would save money,” Sezemský said. “In the long term, we’re aiming … to change to a system where people not active in trying to find their way out of their situation will gradually be losing their welfare benefits.”

The same philosophy underscores Prague’s current strategy for dealing with the homeless, one that is also courting controversy.

For Jiří Janeček, of the ODS, city councilor in charge of social issues, getting the homeless or unemployed back into the system means keeping track of them via registration cards. City Hall would entice needy people with a 50 Kč ($2.40) food voucher, for which they would have to sign a contract allowing the use of their personal data, he said. From that, a register would be created that would track where and how often that individual sought welfare aid.

Not only would this reduce welfare fraud, but it would also “protect Prague citizens from the … sanitary, health or aesthetic impact of these homeless,” he said.

A tender is currently underway for the software to create this registration program.

But the Salvation Army, one of the most active organizations working with Prague’s poor and homeless, says the project takes the wrong approach.

“We are in favor of toughening up the system of welfare benefits allocation … but including personal data on these cards creates a stigmatization of these people,” spokesman Pavel Ondrák said.

If there was a database of the needy, it should be used by aid groups only, but “this is fully in the hands of City Hall.”

Janeček defends the plan. “For the homeless, it’s a chance to live a normal life,” he said. “For Prague citizens, they’ll benefit because these people won’t be a public nuisance anymore.”

Budget cuts
In addition to introducing welfare vouchers, Nečas is also planning cuts to welfare benefits — namely sick leave, maternal leave and parental allowances — that will save taxpayers a projected 23 billion Kč each year.

Those cuts, now in the planning stage, will come into effect in 2009 at the earliest, Nečas told the Czech News Agency March 20.

That plan could see substantial reforms to the system of sickness pay, reducing the amount paid out for short-term illnesses. Also, parents who choose a shorter paternity leave would receive higher government payouts.

Škromach had only harsh criticism for the plan.

“The ODS is acting under the pretext of fighting the lazy people who don’t want to work, but this is going to harm other groups: families with children, disabled people,” Škromach said.

Naďa Černá contributed to this report.

Hilda Hoy can be reached at hhoy@praguepost.com

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