16 November 2009

1. Priorities of the Ministry of Labour, Social Protection and Family in promoting policies for social protection of the population 16 November 2009

2. Development of Equitable, Socially Efficient and Financially Stable Social Protection System Objective achieved through: • Adequate support to the vulnerable by efficiently targeting social assistance and preventing social exclusion; • Review of the pension system in order to unify it and exclude privileged conditions from the public social insurance system; • Support the employment of the unemployed, including of returning migrants.

3. Adequate support to the vulnerable by efficiently targeting social assistance and preventing social exclusion

4. CASH BENEFITS Gradual shift from category-based benefit system to means-tested benefit system; SOCIAL SERVICES Development of the integrated social service system;

5. Cash benefits • Freezing the quantum of nominal compensations and stopping the award of nominal compensations starting with 1st January, 2010; • Adjusting the Guaranteed Minimum Monthly Income (GMMI) to the indicators for 2009; • Updating (reviewing) the mechanism for well-being assessment (proxy); • Amplifying the awareness raising campaign on the access to social support; • Building the skills of community social assistants in accessing social support.

6. Integrated social service system • Ensuring the quality and efficiency of the integrated social service system (legal, institutional, operational framework, human resources, financial framework); • Developing, consolidating and integrating targeted social services for groups of people in difficulty (primary, specialised and very high need services);

7. Reforming the residential child care system The number of children in residential institutions decreased by 22% (from 11544 in 2006 to 8992 in 2009) The number of children reintegrated in the family or placed in family-based substitute services is increasing (2008 as compared to 2006): • Reintegration in the biologic/extended family 245 / 364 (1.5 times) • Guardianship 6225 / 6437 (3,4%) • Family-type homes - 64 / 297 (4.6 times) • Foster care - 68 / 79 (16%) • National adoptions 236 / 369 (1.6 times)

8. Social protection of the disabled • Promoting the draft Strategy on Social Inclusion of People with Disabilities and of the regulatory framework in the field; • Institutional and operational re-organisation of the system for establishment of degrees of disability for children and adults.

9. Priorities in gender equality, fighting domestic violence and human trafficking • Extending the National Referral System for Human Trafficking in 2010-2011 across the country; • Developing transnational cooperation for signing of Bilateral Cooperation Agreements for the repatriation of victims of human trafficking; • Consolidating the institutional mechanism to ensure gender equality and promoting the gender principle in national policies; • Consolidating national legislation on preventing and fighting against gender-based violence and domestic violence; • Developing the Automated Information System „State Register of Cases of Domestic Violence” • Ensuring the sustainability of regional centres providing services to victims of domestic violence (Balti, Hincesti, Chisinau); • Developing the legal framework for services provided to aggressors.

10. Review of the pension system in order to unify it and exclude privileged conditions from the public social insurance system

11. Quantum of average pensions by categories by 01.10.2009

12. Conditions for retirement • Unifying the age of retirement and the method for pension calculation for privileged categories of pensioners (MPs, members of the Government, local elected people, civil servants, judges and prosecutors) • Current age of retirement: 50/50 for judges and prosecutors, 62/57 for MPs, members of the Government and local elected people, 57/52 for civil servants. • Total contribution history of 30 years • Special contribution history required: 20 years as judge and prosecutor, 2 years as Member of Parliament and member of Government, 15 years as civil servant, 8 years as local elected person • It is suggested to set the age of retirement at 62/57 (men / women) for all categories of pensioners.

13. Improving the public social insurance system • Extending the need to pay mandatory state social insurance contributions for all people employed on the territory of the Republic of Moldova; • Unifying the retirement age and the method of pension calculation for all categories of retired people; • Suspending the payment of the part of the pension that is paid from the state budget for privileged categories of retired people who continue working in the positions that entitled them to a pension under advantageous conditions; • Excluding the recovery of work capacity from insured risks; • Increasing the responsibility of employees and employers to minimise expenses for the payment of benefits for temporary loss of work capacity caused by regular diseases or accidents unrelated to work by modifying the source of funding and the quantum of benefit; • Increasing the birth and child rearing benefits.

14. Coordinating social security systems • Agreements concluded by the Republic of Moldova: • Agreement between the Republic of Moldova and the Republic of Bulgaria on social insurance, signed on 5th December 2008 (in force since 1st September 2009); • Agreement on social security between the Republic of Moldova and the Republic ofPortugal, signed on 11th February 2009. • Agreements being negotiated with the following states : • Romania; • Czech Republic; • The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. • States that have expressed their willingness to negotiate : • Austria (2010), Poland (2010), Estonia (2010), Latvia, Greece, Italy, Cyprus.

15. Support the employment of the unemployed, including of returning migrants

16. Supporting the employment • Extending the number of recipients of the unemployment benefit by covering workers in agriculture and emigrants; • Changing the mechanism for the provision of unemployment benefit by motivating the unemployed to look for a job and integrate on the labour market, to ensure the efficient use of the available funds, including by reducing the size of the unemployment benefit by 15% after 3 months of receipt and by another 15% for the following 3 months; • Extending the number of people registered for professional training courses; • Employing the unemployed on a temporary basis through stimulation of involvement in public community works; • Extending the number of recipients of professional integration or reintegration benefit and, accordingly, increasing expenses for the payment of the professional integration or reintegration benefit.