Social protection of citizens is one of the priority areas of state policy, which consists of activities aimed at establishing and supporting the social and financial situation of the entire population necessary for society.

Social protection is often interpreted narrowly as an activity aimed at achieving a certain level of wages for those groups of the population who, for a number of reasons, are not able to independently ensure their own existence. These include:

• people with limited physical and psychological capabilities;
• unemployed;
• sick;
• orphans;
• elderly;
• single mothers;
• large families.

When carrying out activities for social protection of citizens, one should be guided by the following principles :

• humane treatment of every person;
• assistance should be targeted;
• comprehensive nature of assistance;
• it is necessary to ensure the rights and freedoms of every individual.

Social Security System

The emergence of the social security system in Russia dates back to the 20s of the twentieth century. The formation of social security at that time meant the establishment in the state of a system for providing material assistance from public consumption funds to disabled and elderly citizens, as well as families with children. This category is identical in its characteristics to the category of social protection. However, the latter can only be applied to a market economy.

In addition to pension payments due to old age or disability, social security included various benefits and payments :

• caring for young children under one year of age;
• in connection with childbirth and temporary disability;
• providing assistance to families for the maintenance and upbringing of children (free or on preferential terms trips to pioneer camps, kindergartens, nurseries, boarding schools, etc.);
• targeted benefits and payments to families;
• providing assistance in maintaining citizens unable to work in special boarding schools and nursing homes;
• free or preferential assistance in the manufacture of prostheses;
• assistance to disabled people in purchasing means of transportation;
• vocational training for disabled people;
• various benefits and allowances for families of disabled people.

The transition to market relations has led to the fact that the social assistance system has become largely unable to fulfill its tasks. At the same time, some elements have become components of the system of modern social protection of citizens.

The concept of “social protection”

Social protection of the population is nothing more than a form of manifestation of the state’s social policy.
Social protection, being an economic category, is a system of distribution relations.

Public funds of funds, which are formed from part of the national income, are used to provide material support for low-income citizens.

Note 1

Thus, social protection is a system of measures to ensure minimally sufficient living conditions and active human existence.

The modern interpretation of the social protection system understands it as a set of rights and guarantees established by law, and social institutions and institutions ensure their implementation, creating conditions for maintaining the livelihoods of various social strata of the population and, first of all, the socially vulnerable.

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In conditions of an economic crisis, social protection is not able to protect the entire population from a decline in living standards and other social problems.

In such conditions, social support is provided only to those most in need - this category of the population is usually called socially vulnerable layers. These include persons who do not have the opportunity to somehow improve their financial situation and thus maintain the necessary conditions of existence.

If we consider socially vulnerable segments of the population more broadly, then these are people whose incomes are below the subsistence level.

In practice, socially vulnerable families are considered to be those families where each family member has a low monetary income, families that have lost their breadwinner, single mothers, the elderly, students living on scholarships, people affected by natural disasters, social conflicts, and illegal persecution.

Social protection has leading organizational and legal forms, which include:

• social services;
• state social insurance;
• pension provision;
• other forms of government support for the population.

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Social guarantee system

Social guarantees can be defined as the provision of services and the provision of various social benefits to the population from available public resources, based on the principle of distribution according to needs and without taking into account the labor contribution of citizens, and without conducting a means test. Social guarantees in the Russian Federation are:

• guarantee of free medical care;
• for public and free education;
• availability of a minimum wage;
• the presence of a minimum amount of scholarships and pensions;
• social pension (for disabled children; disabled people since childhood; disabled people without work experience; children who have lost their parents; persons who have reached 65 (for men) and 60 (for women) years without work experience);
• benefits on the occasion of the birth of a child for the time necessary to care for him;
• benefits for funeral services (funeral and other) in connection with the death of a family member or relative.

Since 2002, Russia began the process of increasing the one-time benefit associated with the birth of a child. And today it is periodically revised. In addition, the amount of monthly benefits paid during maternity leave to care for a child up to one and a half years old has increased.

Social benefits are a type of public social guarantees and are provided to certain categories of the population. Such groups include disabled people, war veterans, labor veterans and others.

Since 2005, in-kind benefits for the above-mentioned groups of people have been replaced by monetary compensation, and since 2005, preferential categories of citizens can apply for a social package, and also have the right to receive monthly cash payments.

The size of the social package consists of the following benefits:

• benefits for travel on suburban public transport;
• free provision of medicines;
• sanatorium and resort treatment;
• travel to treatment sites.

The legislation provides that privileged categories of people have the right to choose between receiving appropriate cash payments and a social package.

The laws stipulate monthly financial assistance depending on the social category:

• participants of the Great Patriotic War;
• disabled people of the Second World War;
• veterans of armed conflicts and hostilities.

People who worked during the Great Patriotic War in air defense structures, were engaged in the construction of defensive communications and structures, airfields, naval bases and other military facilities, family members of deceased war invalids, or who lost a family member, participants of the Second World War and veterans of other armed forces conflicts receive guaranteed monthly cash benefits.

Concepts of social security and protection

Social policy acts as a targeted influence of local governments, the state, and public associations on the system of social relations to improve the life and conditions of the population.

Social protection of citizens is a system of social relationships that are aimed at ensuring a normal level of life support for the population. This includes the activities of the state, public associations, local governments, institutions to create a favorable standard of living for the population, organizations for the protection of children and maternity, professional training of citizens, material support, as well as services for people in need and people with disabilities.

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Social protection of citizens is a practical activity to implement the main directions of social policy. It is produced on the basis of regulatory and legislative documents, material resources and consists of the organizational work of institutions, bodies and organizations.

Note 1

Thanks to social protection measures, financial assistance is provided to mothers, the environment is protected, educational and medical services are provided, the unemployed are employed, low-income families are supported with material benefits, and the consequences of economic reform are minimized. Local governments and the state in general help citizens with the acquisition of housing and other property (through the privatization of housing, municipal and state enterprises, land, family and other private organizations).

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Social security is the main block of social protection of citizens and has narrowly focused action parameters. Security has developed as a system of protecting the population from the onset of those life circumstances that may lead to a decrease or loss of income, as well as poverty. These life circumstances are called socio-economic risks, and they can be classified as follows:

1. Circumstances of a biological nature: pregnancy, birth of a child, illness or general injuries, onset of disability, reaching retirement age.
2. Circumstances of an industrial nature: occupational diseases, industrial accident, military injury, illness received during military service, disability, length of service.
3. Economic circumstances: inflation, unemployment, poverty.
4. Demographic circumstances: large families, orphanhood, single-parent families.

Social insurance system

Social insurance is defined as the protection of economically active citizens from various social risks, based on the principles of collective solidarity in compensation for damage. Key social risks are associated with the following factors:

• loss of ability to work;
• loss of employment and income;
• old age;
• illness;
• unemployment;
• accidents;
• motherhood;
• industrial injuries;
• occupational diseases;
• death of the breadwinner.

The social insurance system is financed from special extra-budgetary funds, which are formed from government subsidies, as well as contributions from employees and employers. Social insurance exists in two forms:

• mandatory, carried out through state support of own funds;
• voluntary, carried out in the absence of assistance from the state.

Citizens can be supported, first of all, through financial assistance in the form of cash payments (pensions, benefits due to illness, old age, unemployment, loss of a breadwinner and others), as well as for restoration of working capacity by providing financial support to pay for vocational education, services of organizations healthcare, etc.

Social protection structure

Social protection can be roughly represented by three main subsystems:

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• providing support to the employed, able-bodied population;
• providing support to the disabled population;
• protection of the entire population in the sociocultural environment (health care, education, protection of culture, etc.).

The main principles for the implementation of social support are:

• targeting,
• humanity,
• voluntariness,
• availability,
• confidentiality,
• preventive focus.

Social assistance system

Social assistance (support) can be provided to those categories of citizens who are in a socially vulnerable position and, due to certain circumstances, are not able to provide themselves with the necessary income.

Support can be provided in the form of in-kind (clothing, free food) or cash payments. Social assistance is financed through general taxes.

To receive social assistance you will usually need to be means tested. It can be provided only to those people whose income does not allow them to meet the minimum needs of life, that is, does not meet the minimum standard of living.

Social support is one of the key elements in the policy of combating poverty, ensuring a minimum income, which are elements of the realization of the guaranteed right to life.

However, social assistance does not imply only material support, but also includes a number of measures aimed at providing groups of citizens or individuals with services from social services to help them overcome life’s difficulties, support their social status, and social adaptation.

Thus, social services and social assistance (as a separate part of the social sphere) can be defined as the totality of all types of activities of social organizations :

• on social assistance;
• for the provision of household, social, legal and educational services;
• on material support;
• in assistance in the rehabilitation and social adaptation of persons who are in difficult life circumstances.

It should be noted that the development of the structure of institutions and the organization of social services in the Russian Federation is at a very high pace. For example, in the first years of the 2000s, the total number of social service organizations, institutions for the disabled and the elderly increased by a third.

The number of centers providing social support to families and children and social rehabilitation centers has increased significantly. New types of social institutions :

• women's crisis centers;
• the only men's crisis center;
• crisis units for girls.

Social work can be called activity that is aimed at providing support, assistance and protection, first of all, to socially disadvantaged categories of the population.

The concept of social protection of the population

The social protection system is usually understood as a system of measures that are carried out by state and public organizations with the aim of ensuring guaranteed minimum sufficiently favorable living conditions and maintaining the life and activity of a particular person.
Definition 1

Social protection as a term can be interpreted in a narrower sense, as ensuring a specific level of income for the population who, for some reason, are unable to independently ensure their existence.

Such segments of the population usually include the sick and disabled, the elderly, large families and single mothers, as well as the unemployed and orphans. The basic principles of social protection imply targeting, complexity, humanity and ensuring individual rights and freedoms.

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There are two types of social protection - state and non-state.

The state form of social protection implies the provision of accessible healthcare, accessible education, certain systems of social services and the provision of social services, provision of benefits and pensions, measures for the provision of social support. Non-state forms of anniversary include voluntary social insurance, private insurance system, charity and others.

Note 1

The social protection system is usually understood as a certain set of legislative acts and measures that ensure the implementation of the developed measures of social protection of the population and provide support to socially vulnerable segments of the population.

The social protection system includes:

• Social Security;
• Social guarantees;
• Social support;
• Social insurance.

Social work concept

The object of social work is people who need outside help and support:

• elderly;
• disabled people;
• pensioners;
• children;
• people with serious illnesses;
• people in difficult life circumstances;
• drug addicts;
• unemployed;
• teenagers who find themselves in bad company;
• refugees;
• single-parent families;
• migrants;
• those who have served their sentences in places of detention;
• convicts, etc.

The subject of social work are people and organizations conducting social work:

• a state that implements social policy through its own social protection bodies;
• public associations and organizations (Association of Social Pedagogues and Social Workers, Russian Association of Social Services and others);
• charitable organizations;
• relief societies (Red Cross and others).

The main subjects carrying out social work, both on a public or voluntary basis, and professionally, are people. All over the world there are about half a million professionally trained social workers, that is, those people who have an education and a diploma confirming the necessary qualifications.

In the Russian Federation, the number of such people is about several tens of thousands. The bulk of social work tasks are performed by non-professional employees out of a sense of duty, conviction, or due to prevailing circumstances.

Principles of social protection

There are several basic principles in the social protection system.

• Firstly, social justice and humanity - that is, recognition of the value of human life, a real assessment of his personal potential, awareness of the causes and essence of risky situations and ways out of them;
• Secondly, targeting. It consists of taking into account individual risk situations that are specific to an individual due to his psychological and physiological characteristics, as well as a special social group. Accounting is carried out in order to implement a set of important necessary measures for social support, adaptation and activation of a person’s internal potential, his initiative and motivation.
• Thirdly, the last principle is multi-subjectivity. It lies in the presence of institutions within the social protection system. This is due to the peculiar presence of a significant number of its subjects, who are in close interaction with each other and implement certain tasks and functions.

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