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TIRANA, March 15/ATA/- “The delayed reform of Albania’s welfare program will go ahead as a guarantee that will put an end to party clientelism and corruption to the detriment of the poorest and as another instrument against unemployment and chronic laziness”, stated on Thursday at the Assembly Prime Minister Edi Rama.
The prime minister was speaking during a session of debate on the motion proposed by the Democratic Party in opposition on the issue of removal from the scheme of welfare program of more than 20 thousand low-income families countrywide.
PM Rama drew the attention on the poverty level in Albania during the period 2008-2011 and backed his claims with indicators provided by the Institute of Statistics (INSTAT) and confirmed by the World Bank.
“Poverty level increased from 12 .5 percent into 14.3 percent and extreme poverty from 1.2 percent into 2.3 percent, while the welfare program scheme covered only 14 percent”, said PM Rama.
Therefore, emphasized the prime minister, the World Bank reached to the conclusion that the old scheme of welfare program was out of date and suggested to the government the reform that we are currently implementing.
“Those demanding an explanation on the new welfare program are the same people who provide themselves with economic benefits at the Municipal Council of Kukësi city. We undertook the reform immediately after removal of certain criteria from the check list excluding the television set, the refrigerator and the shower boiler”, said PM Rama.
The prime minister emphasized that every unnecessary red tape was reduced and the poor families are only required to produce one from 9 documents. “These changes have enabled that more than 18 thousand families apply for economic assistance while in the old scheme they were excluded”, said PM Rama.
While reminding that according to the old scheme the economic benefits amounted to 6 thousand lekë, PM Rama emphasized that, “at present the economic benefits amount to 110 thousand lekë per month”.
Further on, the prime minister emphasized that all the package of social assistance amounts to 10 billion lekë.
The prime minister also drew the attention to the 6% municipal funds designed for economic assistance.
PM Rama called on the town halls that have not yet used the 6% fund scheme set to the local government for the purpose of economic assistance.
“This fund goes to the families in need that the local government decides to pay benefits. By 2011, the fund was 3% and was never used. While at present there are 3402 households that have benefited from this fund and are included in this scheme”, said PM Rama.
According to the prime minister, 42 among 60 town halls have already provided this fund.
Further on, the prime minister emphasized that the scheme of social assistance is flexible, but there is no room for those who abuse with it.
Likewise, the prime minister highlighted the vision of the government of considering the economic assistance like an emergency situation and support employment.
Meanwhile, the prime minister pointed to the opposition leader Lulzim Basha and mentioned several cases when he has used the economic assistance for political propaganda./p.s./
