11.07.2018.

BULGARIAN WELFARE DOES NOT COMBAT POVERTY BUT THE POOR

A Review

Publisher: Collective for Social Interventions, Sofia 2018.

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KOI’s 2018 report «The people» against welfare payments: or the art of making those in need ask for more restrictions against themselves» authored by Vanya Grigorova is a follow-up of an earlier, 2016 report entitled Poor Against Poor. That previous report detailed the ever-proliferating types of welfare payments existent in Bulgaria, the common misconceptions about them, and the discursive and policy stratagems the Right deploys to limit access to the social safety nets. The main thesis, then and now, is that the political class and the media rely on a false narrative about the ostensibly «generous welfare system» in Bulgaria and on racist tropes about «minorities abusing the system» in order to justify each round of savage cuts. Grigorova’s report dispels this myth and proves that Bulgarian welfare cannot guarantee decent life for none of the ever-dwindling number of people (of whatever ethnic background) who manage to pass the draconian criteria for receiving welfare. Another issue the report takes stock with is the widespread confusion (even among experts and reformers) between the social security and the welfare systems. Too often experts and politicians justify austerity by reference to the supposedly bloated and unsustainable «welfare budget». Grigorova shows that the source of this confusion is that they lump under this vague category both welfare (which comes from the state budget) and the social security payments (which every worker makes out of their own salary), amounting to a manipulation that aims to build a social consensus for the cuts.

Tags: Economy, Rad, Radnička prava

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