Social schemes overload the budget, over 300,000 citizens receive pensions for three months

This assistance given to these people, by social science and economists, is said to be insufficient to ease poverty, but is considered too high for Kosovo's budget.

The budget for 2021 was meant to be over 2.4 billion euros.

Social Science Professor at Pristina University Behxhet Gageqi tells Radio Free Europe that social schemes should be modified.

We can look at some schematics in the budget setting mode, but we can see some schematics that would benefit the specific” categories, he says.

Employment of some who receive social assistance, Ghaxhiqi adds, would be the best way to ease poverty in those families. In this category of modification, he says, families receiving social assistance could enter.

The current number of households receiving social assistance from 60 euros to 180 euros is close to 26,000 with over 100,000 members.

The chairman of the Afarism Oda, Skender Krasniqi, tells Radio Free Europe that the best way to reduce the number of people dependent on social schemes is their integration at work.

“Those who find no jobs and receive social assistance should be forced to work for the community, until they find a job which then turns them away from social scheme”, he says.

Krasniqi says those who receive social assistance are inactive, so they work nothing, and in some cases even misuse it.

There are some who work in black because they don't have to work for the community. They are receiving two salaries, both as a social case and as a salary”, Krasniqi says.

Social assistance in Kosovo is given to families under difficult financial conditions, and which have no employed members.

Unemployment remains one of the biggest problems in Kosovo. Over 25 percent of the population are unemployed. Economic growth in Kosovo over the years has not been more than 4 percent, yet in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been economic decline in 3 percent.

Former Labour and Social Management Minister Skender Recica tells Radio Free Europe that social policy reforms must be made.

“Decisions to increase incomes for households who need financial assistance from the state are welcome, but must be legally based, as the law regulates the financial aspect and does not charge the” budget, he says.

In 2018, when he headed this ministry, he says that they had launched social policy reforms but that remain unfinished because of government change.

The reform they had launched, says Recica, was that family members who are able to work were created mechanisms to become part of the job market.

“It is the moment that this government undertakes social reform because it is the basis for both economic development, but also a social stability and Kosovo's integration into European path”, says Recica.

The Ministry of Finance and Transitions in the Government of Kosovo has not responded to Radio Europe's free questions about whether the budget is being charged with numerous social categories and steps being taken for lowering social schemes categories.

Additional help for poor families and pandemics

In Kosovo, the social situation of households involved in social schemes has been burdened during the pandemic with COVIDD-19.

Even in this situation, the government has shared financial means, but has not offered any way of employment.

They have allocated 50m euros for vulnerable social levels, which, according to the government, eases the burden these layers have had as a result of pandemic.

Also in June of this year, the executive had decided that for 6 months, 7,500 needy families were distributed food vouchers worth 60-70 euros.

Last week, the World Bank has approved the Kosovo Social Assistance System Reform Project, which aims to improve the impartiality and adaptability of the country's assistance and social protection programmes.

Financial support approved for the project is 47m euros, concessionary loans from the International Development Association (IDA), which is part of the World Bank helping the poorest countries in the world by lending money with very low interest and long repayment periods.

The loan write-off period for the project is 30 years, including a five-year-old Greiss-pill.

Kosovo shares an important part of its budget for social protection programmes, but the efficiency and re-uniting effects of these programmes can be improved, especially in the context of COVID-19”, said Massimiliano Paolucci, World Bank Country Manager for Kosovo and Northern Macedonia.

The increase in social schemes was often criticised by the International Monetary Fund.

This institution in the past had stressed that new social schemes could put Kosovo into a fiscal crisis.

Kosovo is one of the poorest countries in the region. The World Bank's latest poverty data in Kosovo dates back to 2017. This data shows that over 23 percent of Kosovo's citizens live in poverty.

According to this World Bank data, about 18 percent of Kosovo's population lives in poverty at less than $2 a day, while 5 percent of the population lives below the border of extreme poverty or less than $1.50 a day.