Effectively withdrawing benefits for people in material need because they have failed to meet work activation requirements infringes the fundamental right to assistance for people in material need and violates human dignity, Public Ombudsman Robert Dobrovodsky declared on Tuesday.
Dobrovodsky has submitted an independent expert opinion on the matter to the Constitutional Court, the Office of the Public Ombudsman reported on the same day.
The Ombudsman is responding to a petition by a group of lawmakers challenging the compatibility of legislation on assistance in material need with the Constitution and international treaties. Dobrovodsky considers the provisions to be unconstitutional because they make the provision of benefits intended to allow for basic living conditions conditional on participation in activation work, thereby reducing human dignity to an instrument of social policy.
"The legislature undoubtedly has the authority to encourage benefit recipients to participate actively, for example, in community life. Nevertheless, I've identified a constitutional problem that arises when a penalty for failing to meet an activation requirement affects the very minimum needed for subsistence," stated the public ombudsman. He warned that when the state makes the provision of basic living conditions conditional on performing work, it uses a person's economic vulnerability as a means of compelling them to behave in a particular way.
According to the Ombudsman, the current legislation has fallen below a threshold that was previously considered to be constitutionally acceptable. Although the monthly benefit for a person assessed individually has risen to €89.70, the increase has lagged significantly behind growth in average salaries, the minimum wage and inflation over the same period.
Dobrovodsky also criticised the collective nature of the penalties. As a household is assessed as a whole, the failure of one member to fulfil an obligation has a direct financial impact on all other household members, even though they have committed no violation. The others are therefore reduced to objects of a punitive mechanism, in breach of the Constitution, he warned.
Source: TASR
