Bielova S.O., Dmitrieva V.A., Mudrenko A.A.

Oles Honchar Dnipropetrovsk National University, Ukraine

THE PROBLEMS OF THE SOCIAL PROTECTION OF THE POPULATION IN UKRAINE

There are many urgent tasks for modern social policy at the stage of the socio-economic development stabilization and the country’s integration into the world economy. But the most important tasks are to increase the quality of life of the general public, to provide a basis for its further growth in correspondence with the economic climate and to provide common social standards throughout Ukraine. The government should improve the policy of the social protection of the population to achieve these objects. The social protection of the population is one of the key objectives of the policy of the society’s social and economic development. It’s necessary to analyze the factors of the social protection of the population in Ukraine and to identify the reasons of the imbalance in order to find out why the living standard is low.

The system of the social protection is a sphere of society’s vital interests. Its qualitative and quantitative characteristics show the level of the state’s social, economic and legal development. Today there are more than 20 different kinds of aides and privileges. The existing system of the social protection measures is complex and moreover, some social programs do not have a stable funding.

First of all, let’s consider the sources of the budget revenues, expenditures and compare these figures. In 2006-2010 the expenditures of the overall budget on the social protection and welfare increased from 12.6 billion hrn. to 40 billion hrn. [2, с.198]. The expenditures on social and cultural events took the main place in the expenditure budgets ofUkraine at all levels. In particular, from 2008 to 2010 they amounted to 46-56,2% of the overall budget, or about a third of all costs [1, с.160]. In 2010, the expenditures on the social protection and welfare of the population were 104534.9 mln. hrn. (or 27.6% of the total expenditures). This parameter increased in comparison with the previous year and made up 25759.5 mln. hrn. [4, с.9]. In January 2010 the rates of the social standards increased: the subsistence minimum increased by 2.2% and amounted to 894 hrn. And the minimum wage and subsistence minimum for the labour force population grew by 2.1% and amounted to 941 hrn.

The total amount of the subsidies alloceted to compensate the cost of housing and utilities amounted to 26.2 million hrn. in January, 2011. It was 14.8 million hrn. more than in 2010. It was spent about 332.2 million. hrn. from the State Social Insurance Fund for Unemployment Cases in January 2011. The increase in payments helped to reduce the gap between the rate of unemployment benefits for one unemployed and the minimum wage to 13.5% against 15.4% in December, in spite of the fact that the number of the unemployed rose.

However, such problems as unemployment, low level and quality of life of the population, difficult housing and household services demand an urgent solution. The specialists consider that it is necessary to improve the measurement and evaluation of the level of the social protection, to find the parameters and to develop the methodological bases of the complex indicator calculation of the social protection of the population in order to solve social problems [3, с.29].

One of the main problems in the sphere of the social protection of the population in our country is that the Ukrainian government hasn’t got enough funds to provide the social protection measures. There are many factors which influence negatively the formation of the social protection funds. Today they are the following: a constant reduction in the number of active working population and at the same time the growth of the inhabitants who need social protection; low level of the enterprises’ profitability; high business risks; inflation processes; corruption; shadow economy; consumer goods and services are becoming more and more expensive.

In general, the researchers characterize the current state of the social protection by the following features: a high level of the government involvement in the social protection; collaboration with the population; a rapid increase in the cost of services which provide health, education and culture institutions and the quality of the provided services is poor; a large number of regulations of the social system which sometimes contradict each other; the insufficient amount of funds for the social protection financing [5].

Financial and economic crisis, falling production, decline in GDP have led to a deterioration of conditions and living standards. The population should be provided with a decent standard of living to avoid worsening of the situation. Other material payments are not life-supporting as well. The reasons for these are the following: the majority of the working age inhabitants have not got enough workplaces; an average salary of the population is extremely low. These factors caused respectively low levels of payments to the social funds. As a result labor payments of many people do not provide a decent standard of living. The population is below the poverty line [5].

The task of modern economists – researchers is not simply to determine what causes the problems in the social area, but rather to develop the efficient methods which can be used to eliminate them: the development of national production, development and introduction of their own innovations and new technologies will help to provide people with jobs, decent wages, pensions, as a result quality life will raise Ukraine's economy to a higher level, make it more competitive and profitable.

Literature:

1. Artus N.N. The budget system of Ukraine : Textbook / N.N. Artus, N.M. Chyza. – K.: Type of Europe. Univ, 2005. – 220 p.

2. Chala N.D. The budget system : Textbook / N.D. Chala, L.V. Lazorenko. – K., 2010. – 223 p.

3. Goncharenko D.V. Methodology of evaluation of the social protection of the economically active population in Ukraine / D.V. Goncharenko // – 2005. – № 57, Part 2. – Р. 29-33.

4. Statistical Yearbook "The social protection of the population in Ukraine 2010". – K., 2011. – 119 p.

5. Shlapak V.A. The social protection of Ukraine in the market economy / V.A.Shlapak // The Galician Economic Journal. – 2010. – № 1 (26). – Р. 123-126.