We consider that introducing new principles should not exclude establishing the guaranteed minimum of social payments and privileges for all groups of population. Social benefits and services exceeding this minimum are to be provided at the own costs of the population and costs of enterprises and charity organisations.
We advocate the idea of preserving state guarantees for social insurance of the citizens offering the workers the right to manage finance of other corresponding funds through trade unions. Age and disability pensions, generally available medical services, social assistance in case of illness or unemployment are to be paid out of the state funds of social insurance. At the same time we consider that it is necessary to develop alternative systems of social insurance for the citizens, provided that transformation to these systems will not diminish personal safety. The system of labour pensions and insurance medical service is to be based on the principle of equal involvement of enterprise and employees in it.
There are several directions to reform the system of social payments. We consider that degree of social assistance should be based not on the minimal wages but on the average aggregate income as it is practised in the developed countries. The amount of this income should increase and meet the cost of living.
It is necessary that legislation reflects the right of individual to receive only one type of social assistance, the most beneficial for the recipient. As addition to assistance and compensation subsidies at the national level, we should develop the system of financial and in-kind assistance to people and families of scanty means. The amount of this assistance should be based on the average income for each member of the family, cost of living and demographic situation in the region.
We consider development of minimal standards of wages and adoption of appropriate laws on this to be our primary tasks. This is to include hour-based payment, sum of pension, subsidies for families with children, minimal set of general and free services of education, health care as well as methods of calculating minimal cost of living. The latter, on one hand is to reflect real possibilities of the state and, on the other, is to ensure minimal set of living benefits.
We consider that social assistance for the population is to be differentiated and depend on the income, ability to work and in some cases on the nature of work and its correspondence to social needs. Some strata of population that are the most vulnerable need special programmes of social support.
We will participate in the development and implementation of poverty preventing programmes as well as in the programmes of compensation of depreciated savings of people. We will promote implementing national and regional programmes of professional rehabilitation and employment for invalids, as well as national programme of providing them with means of rehabilitation.
Set of measures aimed at improving protection of the population, especially the least provided for groups, is to be complemented with implementation of housing and communal reform. This will require perfecting mechanisms of providing subsidies for housing and communal payments to some categories of people. Transport subsidies, assistance in covering telephone bills and other vital services are to be introduced.
We are convinced that social security of people should not only guarantee unconditional support for those people who are entitles to it, but it should also prevent non-targeted allocation of the social funds.