Gandi (PhD) Cabinet Member, Minister of Social Welfare and Labor of Mongolia

Transcription

1 Gandi (PhD) Cabinet Member, Minister of Social Welfare and Labor of Mongolia

2 Scope of Social Welfare: Social welfare operations /pensions, benefits and services/ Universal welfare benefits and allowances Allowances to senior citizens and disabled Extra allowances, concessions and aid to special status senior citizens

3 Type of activities Social welfare Universal cash allowances Aid to senior citizens and the disabled 2009 budget /MNT, bln. / Share in total 55,274,130, ,294,400,0 65,3 21,962,600,0 8.2 Aid to senior citizens with special status 15,536,700,0 5,8 Total 266,067,830,0 100,0

4 Legal and Regulatory Environment: Social Welfare Law Law on Mother, Child and Family Welfare Protection, Law on Development Fund of Mongolia Law on Social Welfare for Senior and Disabled Citizens Law on State Allowances for Senior Citizens Labor Heroes, People s Heroes and with state Honors

5 High expenditures Low effectiveness, particularly in relation to poverty reduction Based more on political pledges less on professional design Regulated by several different laws Multitude of welfare benefits, but actual amount of benefits to household is relatively small

6 CONCEPT: Consolidation of various social welfare benefits and allowances Move from universal benefits to targeted benefits Identification of target groups on individual and household level, moving towards household targeting Better link with poverty reduction objectives

7 Legal Reforms: Social welfare benefits will be done regulated by 2 Laws instead of current 6: Law on Social Welfare to be revised Law on State Allowances for Senior Citizens Labor Heroes, People s Heroes and with state Honors - to be revised

8 Consolidation of social welfare benefits and allowances: Consolidation of existing 66 types of welfare benefits Social welfare activities: Social welfare pensions Social welfare allowances Social welfare services Social development programs 2. Extra allowances, concessions and aid to special status senior citizens / remain temporarily/

9 Social welfare pensions: Social welfare pensions to senior citizens, disabled and orphans not qualified to receive pensions from the Social Insurance Fund, under the current Social Welfare Law, will remain unchanged. A total of 52,000 citizens will receive a monthly pension of MNT 41,400. Social welfare pension is less than old age pension. Annual spending MNT 25,6 bln.

10 Social welfare allowances: Care taking allowance Allowance for households with children Allowance for poor households Interim or pilot period temporary allowance Emergency assistance allowance

11 Care taking allowance: A monthly allowance (MNT 20,000) for individuals taking care of single senior citizens, disabled and orphans, will remain unchanged. Coverage and budget will remain unchanged as 25,600 beneficiaries and MNT 7.3 bln annually.

12 Allowance for households with children: A new allowance, will be replacing: Monthly allowance for pregnant mothers (MNT 20,000) Child money monthly (MNT 3,000) and quarterly (MNT 25,000) payments One off benefit for newborn child (MNT 100,000) Annual benefit for twins (MNT 60,000) This monthly allowance will benefit households with pregnant woman (from the 5th months of fetus) and children 0-18 years old. Amount of the allowance will be fixed at progressive principle depending on the number of children (e.g. MNT 5,000 for the first child; MNT 8,000 for the second child and MNT 11,000 for the third and consecutive child; )

13 Allowance for households with children (continued): The progressive increase of the amount is based on the need to - adhere to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to protect every child; - support families with more children; and - support the population growth. If implemented, this will change the nature of the political party pledges in support for families with more children. Estimated coverage - 490,000 HHs; budget MNT 105,9 bln.

14 Allowance for poor households: This is a new allowance to poor HHs replacing New-weds benefit Several minor benefits (such as assistance for purchase of wood and coal for heating etc.) Poor households will be identified using Proxy Means Test (PMT). PMT methodology will use a set of HH characteristics (such as number of livestock, type of dwelling, size of household, employment status etc) to define the living standard of HHs through application of specifically a designed formula.

15 Allowance for poor households (continued): HHs identified as poor by PMT will receive a monthly allowance, the amount of which will be defined by the actual discrepancies between current living standards and the threshold to bring up to. Estimated coverage- 100,000 HHs; budget MNT 40,0-45,0 bln annually. The allowance is to play an important role in poverty reduction at HH level.

16 Interim or pilot period temporary allowance : There should be room for pilots and trials of new ways of welfare supports. There are lessons that a welfare reform can not be successful without piloting, checking pros and cons as well as introducing temporary relief and support for those who might lose with the proposed reform.

17 Interim / temporary allowance (continued): This assistance if of temporary nature. Example: With introduction of the new allowance for HHs with children, a temporary assistance might be granted to HHs with 1-2 two children that are losing some part of their benefits as a result of the reform.

18 Emergency assistance allowance: This will consolidate various allowances granted under the previous Law (e.g. assistance to families and citizens becoming homeless due to natural and other disasters, funeral expenses etc); This allowance will also support social integration of those newly released from prisons, homeless and street living citizens, and young adults leaving care homes etc. Type and size of such support should be defined locally (at community level) in flexible manner on a case by case basis. No definite number of beneficiaries can be planned. MNT 7-10 bln could be budgeted annually.

19 Social welfare services: Community based social services /existing/ Specialized (institutional) care services /existing/ Social development programs: Welfare services to support education ( e.g. existing services/benefits to support education of disabled children) Welfare services to support health (e.g. existing services /benefits to support health/rehabilitation of disabled adults and children; and seniors etc) Food and nutritional support (e.g. ADB funded Food and Nutrition Project is in implementation; MOH project to provide supplementary nutrition to pregnant women and under weight children etc)

20 Post-reform budget allocation: Type of activity 2010budget /billion/ Share in total % Social welfare pension ,7% Allowance for HHs with children ,7% Care taking allowance ,3% Emergency assistance allowance ,4% Interim /pilot period benefits ,8% Social welfare services, programs and other expenses ,7% Allowances granted under the Law on State Allowances for Senior Citizens Labor Heroes, People s Heroes and with state Honors 7,0% TOTAL 220, ,0

21 The reform needs to be implemented in phases: Allowance for HHs with children and other consolidated allowances can be implemented prior introducing proxy Means Test (PMT) methodology. Allowance for poor HHs -can be implemented upon completion of development of database of poor HHs. Designing and piloting of the PMT methodology, data collection and database development will require at least 18 months of time.

22 Ranking of HHs by their living standards using PMT will be implemented within the framework of ADB funded Food and Nutrition Social Welfare Project (Sep 2009-Jan 2011/ PMT methodology and HH questionnaire development (WB and ADB consulting support) PMT Piloting ( ADB support) Capacity building for conducting survey (ADB support) Data collection, processing and ranking of HHs (WB and ADB support)

23 WB/ADB experts assisted in developing social welfare reform plans. WB experts developed PMT methodology and formula, WB/ADB consultants supported development of HH survey questionnaire; WB consultant supported work on draft legislations and budget estimates. ADB consultant supports planning of HH data collection and database development stages. ADB consultants (international and local) support work on public education on the reform.

24 ADB consultant is currently working on HH database development (within Food and Nutrition Social Welfare Project) Appx MNT 10 bln is required for defining HH living standards using PMT. Support for capacity building is sought from WB and ADB.

25 THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION