Policy of social protection, protection of health and economic security of the population

The next structural component of social policy is the social protection policy. This is a system of principles, norms and measures used by the state to create and regulate socio-economic conditions that ensure the protection of citizens in situations of social risk.

Social risk is understood as the risk of circumstances in society that cause significant damage to citizens for objective, independent of them reasons (unemployment, inflation, disability, consequences of age, death of the breadwinner, etc.).

In order to implement the policy of social protection, a social protection system is being created and developed, which is a set of forms and measures that ensure the maintenance of the livelihood of those groups of the population and citizens who find themselves in situations of social risk due to circumstances beyond their control.

The main principles that underlie social protection policy are:

humanity; universality combined with a differentiated approach to different socio-demographic strata and population groups; targeting of protection; flexibility of the system; integration of different parts into a single system; reliability of resource support for the measures taken.

Social protection is carried out in two main forms: monetary and in kind. In certain circumstances, various kinds of benefits are paid in cash (for unemployment; child care, etc.), pensions (labor, social, etc.), subsidies (in connection with housing payments), etc. And in kind, social protection can be realized in the form of free school breakfasts or lunches, provision of clothing and food for orphanages and shelters, etc.

Social protection methods are very diverse in practice, and new ones may emerge as the social situation changes, especially in transitional conditions. The main methods used during the transition period are as follows:

Social assistance, carried out both in cash and in kind on the terms of gratuity or preferential treatment in relation to persons objectively in a difficult financial situation (disabled people, large families, victims of the Chernobyl disaster, etc.).

For example, social assistance to citizens affected by the Chernobyl accident in the Republic of Belarus is legally made dependent on the degree of contamination of the zone with radionuclides (there are 5 of these zones). At the same time, social assistance is carried out in a number of forms: compensation, benefits, pensions, cash benefits, benefits in kind, medical care.

Social insurance is a system of providing financial assistance through contributions (mandatory or voluntary), subject to the dependence of the volume of social services on the amount of contributions made. Moreover, this system can be both public and private.

Social guardianship is a method of social protection in which assistance is provided regardless of the level of income or contributions, but in connection with the revealed objective need (for example, in the case when children are left without parents).

Social support is a way of social protection of citizens whose incomes are below the established subsistence minimum.

Social services are a system of social protection for persons who find themselves in an extreme situation and are unable to self-care. In such a situation, methods of providing social and medical services at home, and social and household services, and rehabilitation services are used.

However, the conditions and features of the transition period, when the polarization of incomes and the situation of the population sharply increases, the prevalence of poverty increases, when, against the background of social stresses, the health of the population deteriorates sharply, require the strengthening of the social protection system.

The policy of protecting the health and environmental safety of the population is another component of social policy, by the way, which has not yet been singled out as an independent one, neither theoretically nor practically.

Two major social problems: 1) the tendency of depopulation of the country’s population in transitional conditions and 2) the growing danger of an environmental catastrophe – when combined, can put a historical “point” not only in solving the problems of the transitional stage, but also in the very existence of the population of the country, the region and even the Earth as a whole.

The main causes of depopulation are a decrease in the birth rate with a simultaneous increase in the death rate of the population. Moreover, according to experts, the latter factor acts 1/3 stronger than the first. The increase in mortality is due, in turn, to the following:

deteriorating health due to the deterioration of the economic situation of people; prolonged social stress; an increase in the incidence of serious diseases (cardiovascular, oncological, tuberculosis, hepatitis, mental, etc.); increased infant mortality; increased mortality of the male population of unnatural etiology (alcoholism, drug addiction, suicide, etc.).

In addition, it should be noted that each person as a person, as a set of abilities is unique. Therefore, the losses of the population become irretrievable for the country and, as history shows, they then respond with a long “echo” to the fate of the peoples. Without the population, without its active support, no transitional tasks, especially of the transformational type, are simply impossible.

The same can be said about environmental safety. If it is not provided (if people have nothing to breathe and there is no drinking water), socio-economic restructuring is doomed to failure.

That is why the protection of public health and ensuring its environmental safety should become another, moreover, the most important part of the social policy of the state in the transition period. However, the peculiarities of the transition period and the too high price of social policy failures at this time put forward the most important common task – the scientific development of a social strategy. Social strategy is the internal, general and long-term basis of the entire social policy.

The main functions of social strategy can be considered:

identification of the main target orientation of social policy; ensuring the complexity and internal consistency of all links of social policy.

For a social transition strategy to be able  to fulfil its functions, it must be sustainably based on a number of general principles that take into account the specifics of the transition period. The main ones are the following:

the principle of combining social protection, social support and social liberalism in connection with the varying degrees of social adaptation of different segments of the population to transitional conditions; the principle of combining entrepreneurial and labor motivation of all segments  of the population, which is ensured by the growth of the prestige of education and professionalism, vertical mobility and, most importantly,  the appropriate remuneration system; the principle of combining state and non-state public charitable activities based on the common values of human solidarity, kindness and mutual assistance; the principle of pendulum, in which it is possible and necessary to change the priorities of social policy, its flexible response to rapid changes in situations in the transition period in conditions of general insufficiency of financial resources.

Very difficult efforts to develop and implement a strictly calibrated social strategy and social policy will pay off with the greatest value of the transition stage – the social sustainability of society.