Programs in the social assistance system

The Georgian media claims that the regional agencies of the social assistance unofficially received an instruction to limit the number of citizens in the list of socially unprotected persons. This is necessary for the country’s administration for two reasons allegedly: firstly fewer people would qualify for support and secondly, the poverty indicators of the country will decrease showing that the country is developing. The situation in the official statistics is as such: in the list of the vulnerable families in 2008 there were registered 502 000 families, in 2009 – 539 000 families, in 2010 – 545 000 families. Out of around half a million families demanding assistance only about 1/5 is receiving this assistance. The research carried out by different non-governmental organizations confirms that there are many families which do not qualify for the vulnerable families’ list for different reasons. Sometimes families fall out of this list completely. Overall there are more families in need than are really assisted by the state and not all the cases come under the attention of media or NGOs.