The city of Belgrade has changed the rules on awarding free meals, expanding the categories of users. Who has the right to a free meal at a public kitchen in Belgrade and whether the new system is fairer than the previous one
City Beograd changed the rules for awarding freebies meal u soup kitchens, expanding the range of beneficiaries to pensioners with the lowest incomes.
The authorities present this measure as a "significant step towards strengthening social security" due to low pensions and rising living costs, but the question arises whether it is a matter of systemic improvement or the impossibility of a systemic response to deepening of poverty.
According to the new rules, pensioners whose income does not exceed 50 percent of the minimum wage will have the right to a free meal in the future. In practice, this means that those with pensions of about 30.000 dinars or less will qualify for this type of assistance.
The Secretariat for Social Protection says that the city "sends a clear message of solidarity and responsibility" with this measure. However, the expansion of the list of beneficiaries of soup kitchens can be seen as an acknowledgment that a growing number of citizens, including pensioners, can no longer meet their basic needs without humanitarian aid.
Until now, the beneficiaries of free meals were recipients of cash social assistance and other vulnerable categories. Now pensioners with the lowest incomes are joining that circle.
"Requests are submitted to the competent Center for Social Work, and in this way the social protection system becomes more inclusive and fair, because it recognizes the real life circumstances and economic challenges that older fellow citizens face," the Secretariat announced.
The data further problematizes the image that the government tries to present. The minimum monthly salary in Serbia this year ranges between 59.360 and 68.264 dinars, while according to data from the PIO fund, about 290.000 pensioners receive less than 30.000 dinars.
How many of them are in Belgrade is not known, because such data are not publicly available.
At the same time, the average pension in the capital is 72.283 dinars, which creates an impression of relative stability, which, however, conceals deep differences among the pensioners themselves.
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