Do benefits reach the poor? Do field social workers help in that?

15/04/2015

According to estimates, 59% of people in deep poverty do not have access to social benefits in Slovakia (World Bank 2011).

Ensuring full access to benefits for people in need is a basic challenge of modern welfare states. The Budapest Institute examined whether social workers employed in the project of Slovak Field Social Work can help people access social benefits. The analysis prepared by Márton Csillag and Gábor Csomor reveals the aims and impact of FSW reforms in 2012, and concludes that in localities where social workers were employed the rate of people who could access benefits has increased slightly (by 3.5%).

The study was prepared in the framework of a comparative research project entitled Access to benefits in times of crises commissioned by Eurofound, a European Union research agency. Besides Slovakia, the project included three other case studies from Estonia, France and Italy.