Romania’s Social Assistance System, Grossly Cheated – President

At the launch of a report by a presidential commission on social and demographic risks, Basescu said one of the reasons why the country’s social assistance system is inefficient is that Romania has hundreds of early retirees who claim to be inapt for work, although they only have minor health problems.

The president also said doctors, although they complain they have low wages, some they are willing to sign papers and send people perfectly capable of working into the public pension system, for „a pack of cigarettes or a bottle of whisky”.

„This report is a mirror of the Romanian social protection system, with all the factors that contributed to its inefficiency,” Basescu said, adding the document is a call for the political class to stop making decisions in the field of social assistance only during election campaigns.