Romania has 1.8 mln people dependant on welfare schemes

Newsroom 17/08/2011 | 16:10

Sebastian Lazaroiu, the minister of Employment, Family and Social Protection, recently announced in a press conference that Romania has over 8.3 million active people that are on some sort of welfare scheme, Mediafax newswire reports. Approximately 1.8 million Romanians do not have a job, do not go to school and are not physically disabled. These people are solely dependant on state aid.

Lazaroiu stated that approximately 1.2 million Romanians make up half of their revenue from state aid. The Employment minister considers that generous welfares schemes prevent people from looking for a job. In fact, it is the government’s duty to encourage these people to find a job.

People on welfare will be periodically verified as 15 percent or RON 2 billion of the total welfare budget of RON 14 billion is consumed by fraud. In 2010, state aid for the heating bill had an 18 percent fraud level, 36 percent of welfare payments for the disabled were obtained by fraud, while 15 percent of payments for family support were obtained illegally.

Lazaroiu believes that the abuse on the state assistance system will stop once the new welfare law is implemented.