In Belarus, social workers provide home-based services to 88.8 thousand elderly people and disabled individuals who are unable to work. Compared to October 1 of last year, the number of recipients of home-based social services has increased by 1 thousand people, as reported to BelTA by the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection.
In Belarus, social workers provide home-based services to 88.8 thousand elderly people and disabled individuals who are unable to work. Compared to October 1 of last year, the number of recipients of home-based social services has increased by 1 thousand people, as reported to BelTA by the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection.
Among those receiving home-based services are lonely elderly people (every third person is over 80 years old), and individuals with first and second group disabilities. The majority of recipients of home-based social services are rural residents, including those living in remote, sparsely populated villages. They are provided with social and domestic services such as purchasing and delivering food, medications, and essential goods, processing documents for financial assistance, and paying for housing and communal services. In rural areas, social workers also bring water to their charges, heat stoves, clear snow from pathways, and deliver vegetables from cellars, among other tasks.
Home-based assistance remains the most in-demand form of service provided by territorial centres for the social protection of the population (TCSOP). Among the regions of the republic, Minsk Oblast traditionally leads in the number of people receiving home-based services (21.6 thousand people). Minsk has the lowest number (3.2 thousand people), which is attributed to the well-developed infrastructure in the capital.
The terms for providing social services depend on the recipient's family and financial situation. Services are provided free of charge only to lonely low-income citizens. Individuals unable to work who have family members legally obliged to support them receive services on a paid basis.
Currently, 2.4% of recipients receive these services free of charge, 15.9% on a partial payment basis, and 81.7% on a full payment basis. It should be noted that 2 thousand people received home-based social services on a gratuitous basis or on a partial payment basis as an exception, by decision of local authorities.
As noted by the ministry, hourly rates for social services included in the list of free and generally accessible services are set by regional executive committees and the Minsk City Executive Committee at a level significantly below their cost. Thus, the cost of a norm-hour is 35 kopecks in the Grodno region, 40 kopecks in the Brest region, 45 kopecks in the Gomel region, 48 kopecks in Minsk, and 50 kopecks in the Vitebsk, Minsk, and Mogilev regions. Tariffs were not increased in the third quarter.
Home-based social assistance departments are established within the structure of all territorial centers for social services for the population (operating in each administrative district of the republic).