The opposition not only did not refer to the facts but gave false figures and quotes. For example, the World Bank has never said, as you said, that 70% of citizens who deserve economic assistance are excluded! Where did you find this? The World Bank has reacted in a statement dated March 6, where it talks about media untruths regarding economic aid, however, this is your business, but as time has shown, whoever makes people stupid pays when people vote. Unfortunately, the opposition is attacking the most important reform, for the social protection system. In fact, for the sake of the truth, he started it himself in 2012, after the suggestion of the World Bank, but he did not have the courage to take it to the end, he did not even have the courage to start this reform. It took only one step, the step of sending the agreement to parliament, which was approved by a majority of votes and with a government decision, approved the variables and coefficients of the formula, which was put in the drawer.
But what is the system that the opposition wants to keep with its teeth? The system of 23 thousand abusers? Door-to-door checks alone verified 23,000 families receiving economic assistance at the expense of those who needed a living. What does your heart cry for? Because the social administrators had turned into bargain hunters, who used the economic assistance scheme for political favors, or for a handful of votes, or worse still, when the municipal councils decided to reward themselves with the economic assistance payments.
I have heard this week, unfortunately, representatives of the opposition shouting about the fear of increasing families before the elections. It is clear that they know this scheme well, a scheme they used regularly. The economic aid money was used to buy votes and it is no coincidence that the beneficiaries multiplied a few months before the elections. But your philosophy of holding poor families hostage has failed once and for all! Today, the electronic system does not allow the economic aid funds to be misused or abused.
Only 22% was the coverage of poverty by the scheme that the opposition wants at all costs to keep on its feet! Last but not least is a fact that equates the old scheme with your philosophy: Holding families hostage with “mock” payments, for the sake of artificially increasing the number of beneficiaries.
This opposition that today worries about poverty, you know that with 3.7 billion lek allocated from the budget to the economic assistance scheme, it kept 104 thousand families in the scheme, with ridiculous payments of 6 thousand old lek, 8 thousand old lek, 10 thousand lek old ones, just to use them every time a vote was taken for political gain. Therefore, it is clear why the opposition wants to keep this degraded system of misappropriating the money of Albanian tax payers.
These are plenty of reasons why the economic aid scheme had to be reformed. The World Bank suggested this as early as 2012.
It must be understood that the economic aid reform starts from a vision: That the poor are not helped by being kept for years and decades in the scheme, but by helping them through professional retraining, through employment. Not only does the government not plan to cut funding for the economic assistance scheme, but it has increased the budget of the economic assistance program by 27% since 2013, increasing benefits for families most in need and better targeting poor families . Also, the Government provides all additional subsidies, starting from the subsidy for children for not dropping out of school, to the subsidy for electricity, health services, housing, in all its components.
The economic aid reform has a specific target. No longer 22% of the coverage of poor families, but more than 60% of poor families will be covered by the economic assistance scheme, i.e. three times more than in 2013! And it is about really poor families, which are targeted by this system that we are implementing throughout the country.
Only in the first 2 months, it turns out that in 21 municipalities, such as Ura Vajgurore, Sarandë, Cërrik, Devoll, Maliq, Divjakë and other municipalities, there is an increase in the number of beneficiaries compared to 2017.
The economic assistance scheme no longer has exclusionary criteria, which used to leave 60% of families who were really in need to receive economic assistance. The old scheme that you are concerned about did not even allow families to apply for the scheme just because they had changed residence, not only that, but if 1 of the 9 documents required to apply for the scheme such as the ownership certificate were not completed, families automatically they did not benefit from economic assistance. We have removed the “mountain” of documents needed to apply for economic assistance. Today, you only need two documents to benefit from economic assistance!
– Shkëlzen’s family of 6 members in Shkodër, in extreme poverty, did not benefit from economic assistance only because they had changed their place of residence. With the new scheme, which no longer has exclusionary criteria, Shkëlzen’s family does not receive economic assistance.
– Elona is a woman head of the family in Kastriot of Dibra, without any income to raise her children. But it was never selected by the local administrators to be part of the economic aid. Today he benefits from economic assistance.
– The Guri family in Maliq i Korce did not receive economic assistance because they could not complete the land document, 1 of the 9 documents required to apply with the old scheme. Today, he became a beneficiary of economic aid for the first time with the removal of this exclusionary criterion.
– became a beneficiary of economic aid for the first time with the removal of this exclusionary criterion
– In the same way, Nazima’s family, the head of the family, in Libohova, Gjirokastra, could not complete the required documentation; Demir’s family in Kukës with 10 members; of Dawn in Belsh; of the Flight in Kashar, thousands of families that were unfairly excluded by the old scheme, today benefit from the economic assistance they deserve!
Only in the first 2 months of the implementation of the new scheme, there are 10,063 families in need who FOR THE FIRST TIME benefit from the payment of economic assistance as a result of the removal of the exclusionary criteria of the old scheme!
The absolute innovation of the scheme is that there is no longer partial assistance but only full assistance for families in need.
– Islam’s family in Gramsh knows this well, which until December 2017 received 2100 ALL per month in economic assistance. Today, he benefits from ALL 8,000 per month. 4 times more!
– The family of Astrit in Cërrik, which until yesterday received a mock payment of 800 lek per month. Today he benefits from ALL 6480 per month. 8 times more!
– The Bektashi family in Durrës, which until yesterday received 2,000 ALL per month. Today, he benefits from ALL 6,400 per month. 3 times more!
– Manthio’s family in Saranda, which received 1,600 ALL from economic aid. Today he benefits 4860 ALL. 3 times more!
– Namik’s family in Fier received 1067 ALL with the old scheme. Today he benefits 8000 ALL. 8 times more!
Like these families that until December 2017 received ridiculous economic assistance, there are 15 thousand families that have benefited from an increase in the payment of economic assistance. From January 2018, these families receive full economic assistance!
The new electronic system puts an end to the subjectivism of local administrators, false declarations and abuse of economic aid funds and, above all, the lack of transparency! Unimaginable waste, not with 5 or 6 but thousands of cases when economic aid went to families with villas, cars and businesses, leaving out families without any income, in deep poverty.
There are 19,780 abusive cases for discrepancies in declarations and false declarations. Yes, it is true that these cases are automatically excluded from the system.
It is an urban legend that refrigerators, televisions, stoves, boilers are excluded from economic assistance. But there is a truth here, if we were to keep the formula designed with that famous VKM, with that last step you took and then you no longer had the courage to continue the reform, yes, these would be disqualifying criteria.
I say with full responsibility that neither the television, nor the refrigerator, nor the boiler, nor the income from emigration, nor the minimum pension are exclusionary criteria anymore. But we are aware, we are aware that the reform of the extension of the economic aid scheme throughout Albania has only been started for two months. Although the opposition has been engaged in door-to-door knocking to produce chronicles and take photos, we are all on the ground. We will humbly and responsibly go to every citizen who has a complaint, has a claim that he may have been left without being included in the economic assistance scheme.
All social service specialists, in all districts, have gone door to door in the field to verify every citizen who has not been included in the economic assistance scheme. This is a dynamic system and unlike the previous one, this system does not exclude you. Precisely thanks to these verifications in the field, 2,584 more families than in January were reintroduced into the scheme in February.
On the other hand, the electronic system today enables the verification of applicants’ real statements about their social and economic status, because the information is cross-referenced with all online systems, such as the tax system, mortgages, civil status, employment offices, the office of real estate registration, etc.
This is definitely a lie-checking system. This is a system that does not allow you to abuse. This is a system that targets the poorest families. This is what the World Bank says, which through an official letter on March 8 encourages the Albanian government to continue the reform and I quote its expression: “The progress achieved so far in the implementation of the project has been assessed as satisfactory, the results achieved clearly show that the project is achieving its main objectives and goals. It is expected that the overall coverage of the poorest will increase based on the latest official data”.
But are there families that are not included in this system, of course yes, we do not deny any case and invite you to become part of the referral of any case, despite the fact that we are in the field and will go to every family, definitely because this is our duty. You raise a case, we are there to help them because we believe in reform, because we believe that this economic aid should go to those who need it most, it cannot go to the abusers.
But there is also a new mechanism, which is the 6% mechanism that we give to the municipalities, in order not to leave any citizens excluded from the scheme. It was 3%, we made 6% dedicated and the municipalities have the right to have their own criteria to include in the scheme all those families, who according to them are assessed in poor social and economic conditions, are assessed in poverty for to be included by this system.
Why doesn’t the municipality of Shkodra give the 6% today? Why don’t Rrogozhina, Kavaja, Mati give the 6% today? Why? It’s just that it should be possible to continue the opposition’s tour through poor families for political benefits.
You used human misfortune, you used the misfortune of Ardian in Lezhë, who raises his orphaned children. So how can you benefit from these stories? Ardiani benefits from the 6% fund that the government gave to the municipality. You mentioned Hyrije Berisha in Lezha. It is actually a lie when it is mentioned that it does not benefit, because it benefits precisely with the 6% allocated by the government to the municipalities to cover these cases. You announced him from the official statements from the PD headquarters as excluded from the scheme, but Iliri from Kamza was and is a beneficiary of economic aid. You used Donika in Kamez, which you strongly want to keep in the economic aid scheme, no no no you can’t keep her in the scheme, Donika has power, Donika will work, she wants more money than the money provided by the economic aid scheme. That the economic assistance scheme is not a scheme to lift you out of poverty, it alleviates poverty and is a temporary coverage scheme for those who need it most in a certain period of life.
Because our alternative is employment, it is vocational training, and if today 70% of the cases that are not included in the scoring system are those of active working age, we will do our best to include all these cases in the programs our employment and vocational training, to leave no one behind!
We are divided in mindset because we do not see economic aid as a solution. Sustainable employment is our alternative, and as a great reformer said: The success of social policies is not measured by the number of people entering the scheme, but by the number of people leaving the scheme.
Thank you!