The salaries of social workers in the Republic of Moldova range between 6,500 and 9,000 lei, depending on their qualification and experience (the average salary in the economy forecast for the current year is 16,100 lei). In a program on the public television channel Moldova 1, Minister of Labor and Social Protection Alexei Buzu stressed that he is aware of the need for higher salaries in order to attract specialists to the system and said that the Ministry is working in this regard, IPN reports.
“The complexity of work has increased significantly, especially since the pandemic, the refugee crisis and in the context of the RESTART reform. I am glad that last year and this year, we managed to offer all social workers a one-time payment of 8,000 lei in sign of appreciation for their work,” said the minister.
Referring to the RESTART reform launched in 2023, the official stressed that the restructuring of the social assistance system was necessary and inevitable.
“It was impossible to continue with different approaches in each district, whether we are talking about social assistance, home care services or mobile teams. In one district, there were 15 placement centers, and in another – none. This discrepancy does not help anyone,” explained Alexei Buzu.
Asked about the criticism that appeared in the system, including onthe part of those who were fired or whose job applications were rejected, the minister said that such reactions are natural in a democratic society. “It is natural for discontent to arise when deep reforms take place. We have restructured the entire system in a relatively short time and in a complicated context. We didn’t wait for calmer times. We acted,” he noted.
The minister said that before the reform, there were districts with few or even no social services. In some areas, 20% of the population benefited from social payments, while in others – only 6%. This lack of coherence led to the stagnation of the system.
“We had a passive approach, in which laws and programs were adopted, but the responsibility for implementation was left on the shoulders of local authorities. This meant children in poverty, in situations of risk, people with disabilities left without support. The purpose of the RESTART reform was to restart the system, after years of crisis, negligence, pandemic and challenges caused by the refugee and energy crises,” said Alexei Buzu.
Mentioning the results of the reform, the minister noted that, at the beginning of 2024, only 44% of the children with parents who went abroad benefited from legal custody, but now the percentage reached 98%. Also, the number of cases included in the national case management system increased from 3,700 to 40,000.
“When a complicated situation arises, we initiate case management, assess the needs of the family or person, develop a plan and make effort to implement it. The objective is to reach 60,000 managed cases,” said the minister.
Alexei Buzu also said that the state will continue to invest in the “front line” of the system, especially in the field of child protection. “We made sure that we will have at least 150 new specialists in social protection and child protection. We tripled this number and deployed them to localities where there is a large number of children at risk.”
The reform of the social assistance system “RESTART” was launched in March 2023. Its goal was to ensure uniform and equitable access of the population to quality social services, especially for vulnerable people, in accordance with international human rights standards.