Since the beginning of the implementation of the Social Card Act, more than 27.000 people have lost their rights to financial and social assistance, it was announced today at the press conference of Initiative A11.
An increasing number of cases of termination of the right to financial and social assistance are being recorded, without the beneficiary being previously heard about whether there is a reason for the termination and what is the evidence as to how this happened.
The representative of the A11 initiative, Nađa Marković, emphasized that the Social Card is a unique register that contains more than 135 general and individual data on current and potential beneficiaries of social protection, in order to collect all data on a person in need of some kind of social assistance in one place. .
"The social card in the form of an electronic register also aims at automated decision-making based on previously collected data of socially disadvantaged persons, data about people close to you, such as household members, parents and former partners," explained Marković.
She added that the application of this law removed a large number of people from the social protection system, because if the partner or relative with whom socially vulnerable persons are connected has sufficient income, it is understood that they will also support the person seeking social assistance.
A member of Initiative A11, Uroš Ranđelović, reminded that in 2018, the law on seasonal workers was passed, according to which income from seasonal jobs should not affect the exercise of one's right to financial social assistance. However, the social card calculates the income earned in seasonal jobs, and because of this, individuals lose their right to social assistance.
"Incomes from seasonal work are occasional and minimal, and it does not necessarily mean that a person has come out of the vicious cycle of poverty if he went to pick fruit for two months," said Randjelovic.
The members of the Initiative pointed out the additional problem that social workers cannot perform their work normally because there is automation in decision-making - they receive an order that they are obliged to act on, without room for independent decision-making. The A11 initiative announced that it will continue to monitor the further implementation of the Law on the Social Card, and all information will be available in an online file on the organization's website.
S.Ć./FoNet
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