Critical Issues of the Romanian Social Assistance System

Abstract

The paper presents the results of a qualitative study on the current situation of the Social Assistance system as it is seen by interviewed Bihor county social workers. The problems mentioned include a shortage of social workers in the system, lack of coherence in legislation, low level of social services coverage, especially in rural areas, and client's dependency on the system. In order to improve the situation, the people included in the study mentioned the following solutions: identifying the true needs of the vulnerable groups, developing prevention in social work, clients' true involvement in the assistance process, and promoting clients' labor market and societal integration.