Increasing the adequacy and transparency of social benefits

The objective of this reform is to increase the adequacy of the main social benefits targeted at the most vulnerable groups of society and to contribute to the reduction of inequalities. The reform should also reduce the administrative burden and increase the transparency of the system. It will allow faster and more efficient provision of benefits by merging existing social benefits into a single benefit and will achieve better coverage and fairness by improving eligibility and adequacy in applying the benefits. The reform requires changes to the legal framework, some of which, like the new Social Welfare act, have already been adopted.

The adoption of the National Plan against Poverty and Social Exclusion 2021-2027 spearheaded the reform by defining a target to reduce the at-risk-of-poverty rate to less than 15% as well as a strategy to ensure conditions that effectively reduce poverty and social exclusion and improve the daily lives of people at risk of poverty, especially for those experiencing severe material deprivation.

The reform shall be completed by the end of 2024 by further increasing the guaranteed minimum benefit and ensuring its full integration with other social benefits, with a particular focus on people suffering from persistent poverty, by increasing the effectiveness of evaluation and monitoring and by introducing indexation as a standard feature of future benefits.  

More information can be found on the project webpage here.