On 9 September 2013, as a part of his election campaign, Georgian Dream presidential candidate Giorgi Margvelashvili met with voters in Sagarejo and touched on the matter of priorities. Reflecting on the reforms implemented in the healthcare and social welfare systems, he outlined the following points:
Margvelashvili also states that the universal healthcare programme has funded childbirth costs for 6,000 women since 1 July. As reported to us by the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs, the universal healthcare programme provided funding for 7,808 accouchements in the period between 1 July and 18 September. Of these, 5,204 were physiological deliveries while 2,604 cases included the procedure of the Caesarean section. As of 18 September, the Ministry received 2,705 applications of funding for childbirth or Caesarean section since the kickoff of the programme, amounting to a total of GEL 1,993,619.04.
Social Assistance
As reported by the Ministry, starting from 1 July social assistance was doubled for citizens below the poverty line with this doubled assistance to be given to 144,000 households (over 435,000 Georgian citizens). The Ministry further clarifies that social assistance to the first member of the recipient family amounted to GEL 30 and every additional member received GEL 24 whereas presently GEL 60 is granted to the first member of the family and GEL 48 is given out to every additional member.
Along with increasing social assistance, the government received criticism from the opposition for suspending assistance to numerous citizens. This fact has been previously addressed by FactCheck. As revealed by our research, in 2013 the Social Service Agency discontinued or suspended subsistence allowance to those households from the unified database of socially unprotected families whose income was proven by the information of the Revenue Service to be higher than declared. The methodology for assessing the socio-economic status of socially unprotected families was the same as before although some changes did occur in the administering process starting from May of 2013. Consequently, in 2013 the number of social assistance recipient families was 21,965 (69,280 citizens) lower than in 2012.
Moreover, as reported by the Social Service Agency, in 2012 the Agency was planning a profound revision of targeted social assistance including a change in the methodology for the evaluation of the socio-economic status of socially unprotected families. It is impossible to foresee what the formula would exactly be like as it would depend on the results of the research conducted in the process of working out a new formula.
Our conversation with the representative of the Agency further revealed that with the help of UNICEF, the Ministry had already started working on changing the formula. It was also emphasised that “as a very substantial part of the Georgian population is active in the non-formal sector, no formula could be based solely upon income.”
As for pensions, the website of the Georgian Government informs that starting from 1 September of the current year pensions and other social assistance of Georgia have seen increases.
- Every citizen is insured
- Starting from September, pension has grown to GEL 150
- Childbirth became free with 6,000 women having benefitted from this change
- Social assistance has doubled
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- The state age pension was increased from GEL 125 to GEL 150. The increase affected 681,392 pensioners.
- The pension for adults with severe disabilities (according to the old classification, first group invalids), was raised from GEL 125 to GEL 150. The raise affected 21,892 individuals.
- The pension for adults with significant disabilities (according to the old classification, second group invalids) grew from GEL 70 to GEL 100. The growth affected 72,200 individuals.
- The pension for children with disabilities, as well as for individuals having disabilities from childhood, went up from GEL 70 to GEL 100. The raise affected 12,921 individuals. This same category includes those citizens who received household assistance along with the pension, both of which together amounted to GEL 92.
- The assistance to families with no breadwinners grew from GEL 55 to GEL 100. The growth affected 26,700 individuals.
- The assistance to individuals recognised as the victims of political repressions went up from GEL 62 to GEL 107. The raise affected 1,350 individuals.
- The state compensations and state academic stipends were increased from GEL 272 to GEL 292. The increase affected 17,121 individuals.
- Ultimately, 1,272,250 individuals benefitted from the increase. As reported by the Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs, as of September 2012, GEL 110,922,825 were allocated for social assistance whereas starting from September 2013, these allocations amount to GEL 145,529,303.
- Every citizen is insured
- Starting from September, pension has grown to GEL 150
- Childbirth became free with 6,000 women having benefitted from this change
- Social assistance has doubled