Insurance and Social Asistance Expenditure from Local Budgets

Social assistance includes social services and benefits provided with the purpose of developing individual or collective capacity for the purpose of meeting social needs, to increase quality of life and promote the principles of social cohesion and inclusion. The present paper aims to deal with a significant category of expenditure financed from local budgets, namely insurance and social assistance expenditure. The first part of the study includes a clarification of the content and role of these expenditures in the work of local public authorities. Research continues with quantitative analysis of the insurance and social assistance expenditure in local budgets on the basis of existing data in the Statistical Yearbook of Romania and highlights the place it takes in this category of spending in local budgets as well as their evolution in recent years The results of the research show that the evolution and structure of insurance and social assistance financed from local budgets is determined by action of variables which differ from one territorial administrative unit to another: number and social structure of the population, specific legislation on social assistance, social services and benefits provided, etc.