A mother in Pristina: I have nothing to cook Bayram dinner with.

Selvije Haliti has nothing to cook on Bajrami's lunch a tradition Muslim believers will mark on Wednesday, April 10th.

She says her six-member family depends on the charities and the pension her mother-in-law receives.

The children have asked me for a cake and baklava. But I don't have a penny, either to buy ready, or to prepare myself”, Selvi says.

Her family lives in one of the dwellings built by the Pristina municipality, on the outskirts of the city, for families with serious social conditions, those of war victims and disabled persons.

She reports that two children are young people for work, and one married girl. He says that his mate is sick and does not work while caring for both family and household chores.

The 95-year-old mother-in-law only receives a 100-euro pension a month. Sometimes we share 20 euros for food, but the rest need mother-in-law for drugs”, Selvi says.

Any family or charity brings us food”, she says when asked how they manage.

Life is always living. Until two years ago, we received social assistance of 150 euros, but I don't know why we've been interrupted by”, she says, while sitting on the couch.

Social Relief Benefiters

Kosovo, with over 1.7 million inhabitants, according to Statistics Agency data (ASK), has 15 social and pension schemes, which benefit over 321 thousand citizens.

In addition to troubled economic citizens, social schemes benefit disabled people, the families of martyrs, war veterans, and others.

Over 20 grand was the number of beneficial social assistance families with over 78 thousand members in February, according to the AK.

Families receive between 70 and 250 euros a month, depending on the number of members.

The REL asked ASS what the poverty level is in the country is, but did not get answers.

The World Bank's and KSF's latest poverty data date is 2017.

According to them, 18 percent of Kosovo's population live in poverty, with about two euros a day, and 5.1 percent in extreme poverty, or less than $1.50 a day.

That poverty is one of the biggest problems worrying Kosovo citizens, the findings of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Kosovo, published in February, also show.

In the Public Pulse poll, citizens were asked about the most urgent problems facing Kosovo currently.

Some 29 percent of respondents cited poverty as a major problem, 19 percent unemployment, and 9 percent the prices of essential consumer articles.

Currently, the unemployment rate in Kosovo is 11.5 per cent, according to the AK.

The inflation rate, meanwhile, is about 2 percent, but the prices of products and services have remained high since inflation peaked in 2022.

That year, Kosovo has concluded with the average inflation rate of about 12 per cent.

How to Reduce Poverty

Former Kosovo Labour and Social Management Minister Skender Recica says that, in recent years, poverty in Kosovo has deepened because of inflation.

According to him, the government should eliminate the legal criterion for the beneficial family of social assistance not having any members employed, much more so when businesses complain of lack of workers.

By law, social assistance is given to families under difficult financial conditions, which have no members employed.

When one of the family is employed, social assistance is terminated.

This criterion represents a negative effect. Family members should be allowed to work until a time when it is considered that their revenues are sufficient to cover the cost of the monthly basket. Because, the basis of social assistance is low and insufficient for the well-being of citizens”, says Recica.

As an alternative, he also mentions the possibility of engaging in paid work in the community, such as in maintaining areas in which they live.

Reforming social schemes by increasing employment has also been a World Bank recommendation for Kosovo.

One of the steps taken by the Government of Kosovo with the aim of increasing employment has been platform “Superpulla”

Through it, the Government subsidies the employer by paying the worker's salary for six months, worth 264 euros. The employer then has the right to increase the wage value for the hired worker.

In February of this year, the Government of Kosovo announced it continued this platform, launched a year ago, though, according to experts, it is not sustainable.

Kosovo's Finance, Labour and Transfers Ministry has said earlier on REL is working on reforming social scheme, but when there will be changes in practice, it's not clear.

An international loan to this end has not been approved in the Assembly.

In the neighborhood of the Haliti family, REL met the Hajdari family last week, who also lives in a separate settlement from the Pristina municipality.

The couple of this family are disabled and jointly receive 375 euros a month from the state.

I don't get this much... With 100 euros, buy the necessary drugs. Where food, oil, bread... All of them have been expensive”, says family head Naim.

“We postpone by seeking debts to relatives”, he says.

The couple have a son who still follows the teachings.

All five at school. But our desires and requests have never been satisfied. Never, never... We're getting an education, but we separate it from our friends, when there's a school organization or a walk, says Naim. /REL/