Social Protection In Romania. Protecting Citizens Or Electoral Alms?

Social protection is necessary in the context of the existence of a larger or smaller part of the population that does not have an adequate standard of living. The study was conducted based on data collected from the National Institute of Statistics in 2015-2018 and existing legislation in this field. The economic and social life in Romania shows us that too often the governing parties neglect this aspect and use social protection more as an electoral weapon. Based on the study of legislation and statistical data, we will demonstrate that the social protection of disadvantaged groups is of less interest to the ruling parties and the policies pursued are not aimed at improving living conditions but using public money for this field as a tool to earn or maintain As proof is the data presented which shows an ever-changing, contradictory, always postponed and unenforced legislation. The data collected show that despite the fact that money has been spent, increasing during the analyzed period, the efficiency of their spending is minimal, no progress has been made, we are always the tail of EU countries on indicators relevant to our existence: poverty rate, health status, life expectancy. The present study is structured as follows: in the first section the importance of social protection was presented, in the second section the working methods were shown, in the next section the relevant legislation for this field was presented, further the fourth section provides the basis for data, and the results and conclusions of the study are presented in the last chapter.