INTRODUCTION

Social work with low-income and large families is a complex, multifaceted concept. Social work is an activity, the purpose of which is to optimize the implementation of the subjective role of people in all spheres of society in the process of life support and active existence of the individual, family, social and other groups and strata in society. This activity is professional and is aimed at helping, supporting, protecting all people, especially the so-called weak strata and groups (large families, low-income families, etc.). It is clear that such activity has taken place from the very beginning of the emergence of human society, taking different forms at various stages of its development. Historically, social work grew out of philanthropic (charitable) activities, which were carried out by various religious, social, and later business organizations. Philanthropy was originally aimed at helping the poor, sick, homeless, orphans and other socially disadvantaged categories of the population.

It is important to note that today social work with low-income and large families as a kind of activity is aimed at implementing measures of social support for these social groups. In this broad sense, social work concerns every person, the entire population.

Relevance of the research topic. Improving the well-being of low-income and large families is one of the goals of any society striving for progress. A state that cares about its citizens must create favorable conditions for a long, safe, healthy and prosperous life for people, ensuring economic growth and social stability in society.

Currently Negative influence for the welfare of families

have a high level of unemployment, high tariffs for housing and communal services, a low level of wages that does not correspond to the cost of living. Low-income and large families have virtually no opportunity to pay for expensive education and healthcare services, domestic services and many other material, social and spiritual benefits. Under these conditions, the qualitative socialization of children, the realization of their potential, their spiritual and intellectual development becomes impossible. The problem of poverty in the family is becoming stable. Thus, poverty is one of the most urgent and acute problems modern Russia.

Purpose and main objectives of the study. The aim of the work is to analyze social work with low-income and large families, to determine ways to improve. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to solve the following tasks:

1. Consider low-income and large families as centers of social tension.

2. Analyze the problems of low-income and large families and the technology of social prevention.

3. Consider the forms and methods of social protection for low-income and large families.

The object of the study is the problem of social work with low-income and large families.

The subject of study is social work with low-income and large families.

In preparing the work, legislative and regulations defining the institutional foundations of social guarantees of the state.

Work structure. In accordance with the purpose and objectives of the study, the work consists of an introduction, two chapters, a conclusion, a list of sources used.

1 HISTORICAL FACTS AND THE PRESENT IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL WORK WITH POOR AND LARGE FAMILIES

1.1 The essence of social work with low-income and large families

The modern understanding of the foundations of social development proceeds from the fact that the social policy of the state should be aimed at creating conditions that ensure a decent life and free development of a person. In this regard, the protection of labor and health of people, the establishment of a guaranteed minimum wage, the provision of state support for the family, motherhood and childhood, the disabled and the elderly, the development of social services, the establishment of state pensions, benefits and other guarantees of social protection are important.

Social work with low-income and large families is a universal social institution: its bearers provide assistance to all individuals regardless of social status, nationality, religion, race, gender, age and other circumstances.

The only criterion in this matter is the need for help and the inability to cope with life's difficulties on one's own.

Social work is a professional activity aimed at assisting people, social groups in overcoming personal and social difficulties through support, protection, correction and rehabilitation.

As an activity to assist low-income and large families in solving their problems, social work belongs to the number of humane professions. Like medicine, which aims to rid people of diseases, or pedagogy, aimed at the formation of the human personality, it is a practical expression of the principle of humanism, according to which the highest value in society is a person. Humanity is a moral quality that characterizes the attitude of social workers towards their clients.

Like all social institutions, the institution of social protection and social work ultimately performs the most important task for the state and society - the task of stabilizing and preserving society, maintaining and harmonizing existing social relations and providing conditions for its comprehensive development - i.e. in fact, it is one of the essential factors in ensuring the stability and security of the state.

The socio-political and socio-economic crisis phenomena in Russia have caused serious social losses that have affected most families. Low-income and large families found themselves in the most difficult situation. Large families in most territories Russian Federation is fixed in the presence of three or more children (in a number of subjects of the Federation - five or more). Large families, which once constituted the majority in Russia (in the 20th century in the European part of the country there were an average of 8-9 births per family), now steadily occupy an insignificant share (5.3%) of the total number of families. The share of the poor among families with many children is especially high. If among all families with children it is about 50%, then among families with three children it is much higher - about 85%, and among families with four children or more - it exceeds 90%. Moreover, a significant part of families with many children does not have even half of the subsistence minimum per family member. Meanwhile, about 20% of children in the country are brought up in large families.

Attention to low-income and large families, especially in rural areas, in modern science is explained by the fact that in the context of the deepening socio-economic crisis and spiritual and psychological shock, among other traumatized categories, they occupy one of the first places.

1.2 The history of the development of social work with low-income and large families

Social work as a social phenomenon has been characteristic of human society since its inception: in various periods of its development, society helps its members to survive in various forms. This model of assistance is determined by the level of development of society, its culture in a specific historical period. The earliest forms social assistance low-income and large families - alms. With the advent of the state, the process of providing assistance is enriched with system properties (legislative basis for assistance, regulation of the process, etc.).

In the second half of the XIX century. Active participation in the processes of providing assistance is beginning to play not only the state, the church, but also various public organizations, primarily charitable, educational societies, feminist organizations.

State system assistance and support focused mainly on the treatment of social ills, such as poverty, homelessness, disability. In a number of countries there are state organizations, purposefully implementing the state policy in the field of social security and support.

The development of social work in Russia has its own logic and features, which are also expressed in the conceptual apparatus of the history of Russian social assistance (charity and charity are the main, specific concepts domestic experience) in both content and form. This specificity was formed in the conditions of the civilizational originality of Russia (features of the way of life, mentality, cultural traditions, folk pedagogy, etc.).

Identification of the main stages of pre-revolutionary activities for charity and charity is connected with the nature of the participation of various forces in it: the church, the state, and the public.

So, the first stage: X - the middle of the XVIII centuries. - marked by the active charitable activities of the church and the gradual formation of the state system of charity. By the second half of the 18th century, a stable public policy aimed at helping the disadvantaged and the needy. Effective forms and methods of helping those in need appear: orphans, illegitimate children, widows, the elderly, the disabled, the disabled, the crippled, the mentally ill, imprisoned victims of fire, etc. There are two types of charity: “closed” - in institutions specially created for this (hospitals, shelters , almshouses, etc.), “open” - outside institutions, carried out in the form of pensions, benefits, provision of land, profession. Church and private charity exists along with state charity and sometimes plays a leading role.

The second stage: the middle of the 18th – the middle of the 19th centuries. – functioning of state-public charity. Of particular importance in this direction is the activity of Catherine II to strengthen the legislative and organizational base of charity (opening orders for public charity); development of a system of closed charity under the leadership of I.I. Betsky, and the emergence of public charity (the creation of public charitable societies such as the Free Economic Society, the Imperial Humanitarian Society, etc.).

The third stage: the reforms of 1861-1917 - the period of public charity. In the post-reform period, public charity and charity have undergone major changes: qualitatively new principles of organization and activities of charity societies and institutions have appeared. Distinctive features charitable activities are becoming decentralization, “openness” and public charity, focus on prevention in social activities, the emergence and dissemination of original forms and methods of work with a wide contingent of the population, as well as an increase in the number of private charity. Despite the numerous shortcomings of the Russian charity system (the most important of which are the dispersal of funds and efforts, the lack of a unified program), this time was a heyday in the history of domestic social assistance.

The post-revolutionary and Soviet period is characterized by the development, mainly, of the social security system, which took shape in general by the end of the 1920s. AT modern conditions a model of social work is being formed that reflects the features of social processes in modern Russia and uses the experience and traditions of organizing social activities in the field of charity and social security.

1.3 The current state of the Russian family: causes of trouble

The family, as a fundamental institution in the structure of society, is especially sensitive to all kinds of reformatory changes on a national scale, since their results are directly reflected in its standard of living, stability and educational capacity.

Considering the family as an institution for raising children, today we can distinguish a number of features in the implementation of this function. The observed changes in the quality of education in the last decade are primarily associated with the new socio-economic conditions of Russian society.

So, as a result of economic reforms in the country, the family found itself in an atypical pedagogical and educational situation that has no historical analogies. It is known that the parents of schoolchildren make up the age group of 30-49-year-old representatives of society, who by the indicated age achieve a certain stability of their social and professional status, gain confidence in the future. The restructuring of economic relations in Russia has thrown these families beyond the subsistence level, destroyed their stereotype of self-perception, and instilled in them uncertainty and low self-esteem.

The drama of the situation is deepened by the fact that the material and psychological difficulties experienced by the family have led to the emergence of completely new educational problems. Insecure parents cease to be an authority and role model for their children. Children do not turn to such parents for advice and help, considering them losers, incapable of surviving in new conditions. Sociological studies conducted in schools in Moscow and the Moscow region confirm this trend. Since the mother is traditionally the priority in the upbringing of children in the family, we will see how her authority changes depending on the sphere of employment.

It is known that employment in the sphere of budgetary institutions with their low wages is considered the most unprestigious today. The most desirable is work in non-state, commercial structures. As it turned out, when the mother is employed in public sector 68% of schoolchildren consult with her. The competence of a mother working in an enterprise with a mixed form of ownership is estimated somewhat higher: 71% of children turn to her for help. Finally, 76% of schoolchildren consult with mothers working in commercial, non-state structures.

Russia's transition to market rails led to the emergence of real unemployment in the country, which most painfully affected the most able-bodied age group of the population considered here. According to the State Statistics Committee of the Russian Federation, of the seven statistically distinguished age groups of the employed population from 15 to 60 years old, the unemployed aged 30-49 years old make up 62%.

As mentioned above, these people who have children of school age, including adolescents, who most of all need the high educational authority of their parents. Needless to say, an unemployed parent cannot be such an authority for a child.

In connection with the acute financial problems of the family, the views of parents on child labour. Fifteen years ago, the family categorically rejected the idea of ​​including children in the educational process of labor employment in order to earn pocket money. An educational position was popular: “You only study well, and earning money is the business of parents.”

Market relations and the associated sharp decline in the material well-being of most Russian families have changed these fundamental foundations of the educational process. In such conditions, the labor employment of children approved by parents becomes a mass phenomenon. Parents now not only allow, but also welcome the involvement of children in making money.

Currently, unemployed young people aged 16-29 make up more than 32% of all those registered at the labor exchange. There is reason to believe that unemployment in our country has a tendency to further rejuvenation and will acquire an increasingly youthful character and a feminine face. It is no coincidence that high school students put forward one of the main requirements for future profession unemployment guarantee.

2 SOCIAL SUPPORT FOR LOW-INCOME AND LARGE FAMILIES

2.1 Psychological characteristics of people from low-income and dysfunctional families

In matters of social work, the family rarely makes contact with representatives of the state and society, except in cases justified by law, or if the proposed assistance is of a material nature (allowances, payments, etc.).

When deciding the issue of their own employment, today parents often proceed from the possibility of using the received professional training. They strive to keep their usual place of work even with low pay. The inertial motive of behavior is triggered, the fear of change and risk in an unpredictable situation of market relations. The social and psychological detachment of such families turns into an apathetic attitude to life, family passivity, self-destruction of the personality of family members, which often leads to a loss of faith in self-change.

In many cases of work in families at risk, experiencing financial difficulties, specialists and public organizations that come to the family to provide assistance play the role of a “worker”. This consists in the fact that family members shift care for each other, for children, to specialists from outside, since they cannot live without outside control, taking a passive position and giving specialists the right to find a way out of the difficult situation of their family. This leads to dependency, the desire to blame society for their troubles, while masking the real state of affairs in the family and their own doing nothing.

Many families who have had a bad experience of improving their difficult situation are afraid to put themselves at risk again. Instead, they prefer to be in a state of rage and rejection of the world around them. The state of crisis eventually becomes the norm for them, they cease to show their own initiative. Families learn to defend themselves in their own way when faced with difficulties. The paradox lies in the fact that excitement, rage bring them a certain comfort as proof that nothing can be done and therefore their state is natural.

Thus, in general, we can distinguish such features of people from low-income families as

¾ lack of initiative, passivity;

¾ shifting responsibility to others;

¾ inability to set goals to achieve them;

¾ fear of risk;

¾ the desire to blame others for their troubles.

A social worker, based on the principle of maximizing the minimum (the desire to maximize the minimum resources of social assistance), should not only help the family survive difficulties by attracting funds from philanthropists or observing the fair distribution of state assistance, but also teach the family self-help mutual assistance, which give a greater effect than the most generous donations. It must be remembered that morally it is always better to earn one's own income than to be socially dependent.

2.2 Features of social protection of low-income and

large families

The system of social protection of low-income and large families in rural areas, as a special social institution, is in the process of its development. The term "social protection" is various meanings. In the new economic conditions, he replaced the term "social security" used in the Soviet economy, where he characterized the specific organizational and legal form of social protection carried out directly by the state.

In modern conditions, it was necessary to develop other organizational and legal forms of social support for the most vulnerable categories of the population. The term "social protection" was introduced, which has long been used in world practice.

Social protection as a social institution, which is a set of legal norms designed to solve certain social and economic problems, in the international context usually deals with categories of citizens established by law who, due to disability, lack of work, or for other reasons, do not have sufficient means to meet their vital needs and the needs of disabled family members. Within the framework of social protection systems, such citizens, upon the occurrence established by law adverse events provided assistance compensatory nature in cash and in kind, as well as in the form of various kinds of services. In addition, social protection systems implement preventive measures aimed at preventing adverse events. Social protection is carried out in various organizational and legal forms, including such as the individual responsibility of employers, insurance, social insurance, targeted social assistance, state social security, etc. The use of certain organizational and legal forms of social protection can have various social and economic consequences which must be taken into account in the management of this industry.

At the same time, social protection, being by its functional nature a fairly integral system, which is an independent social institution, has specific features associated with the technologies of the services it provides. The technology for granting pensions differs significantly from the technology for providing medical care, social rehabilitation technologies, or technologies for providing unemployed citizens.

In order to understand the state of development of the institution of social protection in Russia and develop a national policy regarding the ways of its further development in our country, it seems necessary, first of all, to note that, although such an institution exists in Russia and plays an extremely important role in the life of Russian citizens, its development to a certain extent, it is carried out spontaneously, without a proper idea of ​​what tasks and how it should solve and what should be its organizational structure, from the point of view of both the organization of the system of legal norms and the administrative structure of this institution, designed to develop and implement in practice legal norms of this institution.

In addition, it should be noted that, despite the actual existence of the social protection system in Russia and its rather rapid development, it has not yet been accepted by public consciousness in our country.

as an independent social institution. In this regard, the scope of its activities is significantly narrowed. In practice, the functions of public authorities that have the words “social protection” in their names, such as the former Ministry of Social Protection of the Population of the Russian Federation or ministries, committees or departments of social protection of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, do not include many functions that, by definition, should be within their area of ​​competence.

Absence general idea about the nature of the institution of social protection and its content, naturally, leads to confusion and free interpretation of various categories, terms and concepts that serve to reveal the meaning of this institution.

In the Soviet period, due to the weak theoretical study of social protection as a social institution, the term "social security" was used in a broad sense to define the entire set of socio-economic relations in the country related to issues of social protection, and in this sense it defined the entire institution of social security. protection, called "social security law". At the same time, the term "social security" in the narrow sense was used to define the system of relations in the field of social protection related to the provision certain types provision at the expense of the state budget.

In a country that has embarked on the path of developing a market economy, the term "social security", reflecting the specifics of the organization of social protection in a centrally planned economic system, cannot be used to define either the entire set of socio-economic relations in the field of social protection, or its administrative structures with new functions.

Therefore, the term "social security" has been largely superseded from the practical sphere by the new term "social protection".

The term "social protection" to the greatest extent corresponds to the essence of this social institution, although the term "social security" continues to exist as a "social security right".

Social protection is also provided for families with low per capita incomes that do not provide the socially necessary subsistence level, which usually results in a lack of means of subsistence or funds to pay for vital goods and services (means of rehabilitation, payment for housing, treatment).

Social protection can be carried out in cash in the form of pensions and benefits, in kind, as well as by providing various kinds of services to persons who are the object of social protection. It can be both compensatory and preventive.

One of the state-legal forms of social protection is directly the state provision of disabled persons. The main features of direct state support are the financing of expenses from the state budget and the establishment of categories of persons provided for and the level of their provision in accordance with the priorities determined by state authorities.

Direct state provision in countries with market economies has a rather limited scope of application.

Another organizational and legal form of social protection is social insurance, which is widely used in the vast majority of countries with a market economy in relation to many types of social protection. It is based on the concept of social risks and the requirement for their mandatory and voluntary insurance.

Financing of social insurance payments is carried out at the expense of insurance premiums of working citizens and their employers, paid, as a rule, in equal shares. The state sometimes also participates in the financing of social insurance systems.

In countries with market economies, such an organizational and legal form of social protection as social assistance is also actively used.

It is targeted and is provided to individuals after checking their need, if they do not have other sources of livelihood.

Other organizational and legal forms of social protection can be provided funds - mandatory (compulsory) accumulation of funds in case certain circumstances arise. The funds aim to provide individual responsibility everyone working for their welfare in the future. They are savings bank type institutions. You can use these deposits in case of temporary disability, on condition of termination of work, in case of unemployment.

A characteristic feature of private forms of social protection is that they are not created in without fail by virtue of the adoption of the relevant legislation, but by virtue of the private initiative of individual subjects of relations in this environment, which assume obligations for the implementation of social protection of a limited circle of persons of particular interest to them. Private forms can be used in such types of social protection as temporary disability, medical care, pensions and others.

Thus, social protection in any state is a complex system of socio-economic relations designed to provide comprehensive assistance to disabled or partially able-bodied persons, as well as families whose able-bodied members' incomes do not provide a socially necessary standard of living for the family.

Effective social protection presupposes the implementation of a policy that adequately responds to the social well-being of people, capable of capturing the growth of social discontent and social tension, and preventing possible conflicts and radical forms of protest.

2.3 State system of social assistance for low-income and large families

The state system of social assistance is devoted to problems that are of fundamental importance for the formation of a scientific understanding of social assistance.

The Russian model of the social state differs from those existing in foreign countries in many respects due to the huge difference in the conditions for the formation of social statehood. The country does not yet have a stable economy necessary for the successful implementation of a large-scale social policy. Therefore, in modern conditions, the idea of ​​a welfare state can be considered only as a program setting for long-term development. It serves as a guide for practical activities government, which in recent years has managed to stop the negative trends in the economy.

The revival of Russia is possible only by building a social state based on law, in which the ideas of equality and justice triumph. It should synthesize the best results of international experience, but rely on the highest achievements Russian culture and traditions.

As emphasized by M.V. Baglai, the welfare state "should fight not against wealth, but against poverty."

In accordance with Article 7 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation main goal economic

policy of the welfare state is to improve the welfare of the population. Therefore, production should create sources for investment in the social sphere, which, in turn, will stimulate the expansion economic activity. And an indicator of the balance between economic and social activities the state will increase all types of social payments to a level that provides all members of society with a decent life.

According to O.P. Berebina, “the institution of a “decent life” is a set of norms that guarantee material security at the level of the standards of a modern developed society, access to cultural values ​​... the rights of personal and family security for both those who work and those who cannot work” .

Achieving this goal of socio-economic policy is impossible in the absence of developed system social protection of the population, one of the most important elements of which is state social assistance.

To determine the place of state social assistance in the social security system, it is necessary to turn to the theory of social risk. As you know, in real life, social risk has a variety of specific manifestations. Specific social risks serve as the basis for building the state social security system, creating financial mechanisms and organizational structures for the realization by everyone of the right to social security under the conditions established by law.

Article 3 of the Federal Law of July 16, 1999 “On the Fundamentals of Compulsory Social Insurance” contains the first legitimate definition of “social insurance risk”, and Article 7 specifies its types. But if the legislator fixes the concept of "social insurance risk", then we can make an assumption about the existence of "non-insurance" social risk. Obviously, those listed in Article 7 of the Federal Law of July 16, 1999 No.

risks threaten not only persons subject to compulsory social insurance, i.e. working on employment contract or self-employed.

Military personnel, employees of the internal affairs bodies, security services, tax police and other categories of employees are also subject to them. They receive pensions, benefits and medical services from the federal budget, and not from off-budget social insurance funds. Based on this, the author joins the opinion of E.E. Machulskaya that when defining these risks as "insurance" the emphasis is on the financial mechanism of protection against them, which is not the only possible one. In all economically developed countries of the world, the sources of financing payments and services in the event of social risks are not only insurance premiums, but also the state treasury. Therefore, the expediency of dividing social risks into insurance and non-insurance seems doubtful.

The only type of "non-insurance" social risk, measures to protect against which are always covered by budgetary funds, is the social risk of poverty. It is he who is the object of protection for the state system of social assistance. At present, it is being formed into a legally formalized and internally organized systemic education within the framework of a more complex multi-level social security system.

The study of social assistance will be incomplete without its analysis as a form of exercise by the poor of the constitutional right to social security. The right to social assistance is organically linked with the right to life and the right to social security, but it occupies a completely independent place among socio-economic human rights. This conclusion is based on the content of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966, Revised European

social charter of 1996 and other international legal acts. Thus, Article 11 of the Covenant proclaims the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living for him and his family, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions.

The 1996 Revised European Social Charter is one of the few international treaties that makes a clear distinction between the right to social security (art. 12) and the right to social assistance (art. 13). In addition, Article 30 of the Charter enshrines the right to protection from poverty and social exclusion.

The Constitution of the Russian Federation does not mention the human right to social assistance. Therefore, in the scientific literature, it has so far been studied only within the framework of the right to social security. But in the future, the influence of international acts on the Russian legal system, as well as the development of domestic legislation, will inevitably lead to the recognition of the right to social assistance as an independent socio-economic human right.

To live, a person must satisfy the physiological, social and spiritual needs at least in a minimal amount. And for this you need to have the means of subsistence. The welfare state guarantees their provision by recognizing the right of each member of society to social assistance, regardless of any additional conditions. Based on this, the following definition can be proposed. The right to social assistance is an internationally recognized and state-guaranteed opportunity for a person to have a means of subsistence in the amount of the established subsistence level, regardless of engaging in any professional activity and participating in the financing of payments and services.

The Federal Law of July 17, 1999 "On State Social Assistance" laid the legal basis for completing the formation of the state system of social assistance. As already noted, it is created in order to protect the population from the social risk of poverty and has all the features of an independent organizational and legal form of social security. First, it applies to special subjects - low-income families and low-income citizens living alone. Secondly, budgets of various levels serve as sources of financing. Thirdly, special types of payments and services are provided. Fourthly, social assistance is assigned by the decision of the social protection authority at the place of residence or registration of the poor person, as a rule, after a means test.

The state system of social assistance is a set of ways to materially protect the population from the social risk of poverty by providing social payments or services at the expense of budgets of various levels.

2.4 Analysis of the results of social work with low-income and large families

Definition general principles and approaches to state policy in relation to low-income and large families in rural areas does not mean unified system measures to be established in each region. Russia (like the USSR) is a country of two demographic types of reproduction. The traditional large families in the regions, with a predominance of the rural lifestyle, translates the problem of low-income large families into the category of general priorities for the socio-economic development of these territories, employment, and the development of the agricultural sector of the economy. In regions with a predominance of small families as an established type of reproduction, families with many children should become a priority group for the social protection system. It is necessary to simultaneously implement two directions of state policy in relation to low-income and large families in rural areas: the policy of stimulating greater activity on the part of the family in self-sufficiency, and the policy of social support for children in these families. If the second direction of policy already has its own history and legislative framework, the first has not yet received proper development either at the federal, or at the regional and local levels. It should be noted that the expansion and improvement of social support for low-income and large families in rural areas is essential. The available data allow us to conclude that families with many children represent the poorest category of the rural population, so the goal of the policy in relation to such families is a set of measures that increase the availability of state social support programs for them. Given the fact that large families are characterized by unbalanced nutrition, it makes

A family (a citizen living alone), whose average per capita income is below the subsistence level, is considered poor (them) and has the right to receive state social assistance. Federal Law No. 44-FZ of April 5, 2003 “On the procedure for accounting for income and calculating the average per capita income of a family and the income of a single citizen for recognizing them as poor and providing them with social assistance” 1 establishes that the corresponding calculation is carried out by the social protection authority at the place of their residence or stay. Accounting and calculation of income are made on the basis of information about the composition of the family, the income of family members or a citizen living alone and their property on the basis of ownership, specified in the application for the provision of state social assistance.

When calculating the average per capita income, a low-income family includes persons related by kinship and (or) property. These include spouses living together and maintaining a joint household, their children and parents, adoptive parents and adopted children, brothers and sisters, stepchildren and stepdaughters.

Federal Law No. 178-FZ of July 17, 1999 “On State Social Assistance” establishes the legal and organizational framework for the provision of state social assistance to low-income families or low-income citizens living alone. Under the state social assistance is understood the provision of social benefits, subsidies, compensations, vital goods to low-income families or low-income citizens living alone at the expense of the relevant budgets of the budgetary system of the Russian Federation.

The goals of the state social assistance regime are: maintaining the standard of living of low-income families, as well as low-income citizens living alone, as well as targeted and rational use of budgetary funds.

At the level of the Russian Federation, the development and implementation of federal target programs for the provision of state social assistance to citizens on the territory of the Russian Federation, the establishment of types of state social assistance, the provision of which is mandatory on the territory of the Russian Federation, is carried out.

The provision of state social assistance is provided for by law in the form of cash payments (social benefits, subsidies, compensations and other payments), as well as in-kind assistance (fuel, food, clothing, footwear, medicines and other types of assistance in kind). The amount of state social assistance is determined by the legislation of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation within the difference between the sum of subsistence minimums and the total income of members of a poor family or a poor citizen living alone.

When determining the right to state social assistance, not only the average per capita income is taken into account, but also the validity of the reasons for obtaining income below the subsistence level. The list of such reasons is established by the subjects of the Russian Federation. Thus, according to the Decree of the Government of St. Petersburg dated June 6, 2012 No. 595 “On the implementation of Chapter 33-2 “State Social Assistance” of the Law of St. Petersburg “Social Code of St. Petersburg, the reasons why the applicant (members of his family) has (have) an average per capita income below the subsistence level established in St. Petersburg are valid for receiving state social assistance in the following cases:

• - Caring for a child (children) under three years of age and (or) three or more children under the age of eight living with him/her;
• - lack of work, provided that a break in work or a break between its termination and registration in public service employment of the population did not exceed one month;
• - caring for an elderly person who, at the conclusion of a medical institution, needs constant outside care or who has reached the age of 80, a disabled person of group I, a disabled child, as well as care for a family member who temporarily needs outside care at the conclusion of a medical institution;
• - being on outpatient or inpatient treatment for the entire duration of the illness;

admission to entrance exams to higher, secondary and primary vocational educational institutions, etc.

To provide measures of social support to low-income families in the city of Moscow, an additional criterion has been introduced - the level of property security. From January 1, 2017, an additional criterion for the need (poor) of a family is introduced to provide measures of social support to low-income families - the level of property poverty. The criteria for assessing the level of property security are: the presence of real estate; availability of vehicles, self-propelled vehicles and other types of equipment; availability of funds in deposits and bank accounts.

The assessment of the level of property security is carried out on the basis of information provided when applying for the provision of social support measures for low-income families. The Department of Labor and Social Protection of the Population checks the reliability of information about the level of property security of the family. Decree of the Government of Moscow dated December 28, 2016 No. 954-PP “On the introduction of the level of property security as a criterion for the need (low income) of a family and the procedure for assessing the level of property security to provide measures of social support to low-income families.”

The reform of the political, social and economic life of Russia, which began in the mid-1980s, assumed that these reforms would create favorable conditions for the subsequent economic growth and prosperity of the country. However, in practice, the formation of new principles of management led to an aggravation social problems that existed back in the USSR, as well as to the emergence of new, previously unknown ones.

At present, the deterioration of socio-economic conditions, the instability of the economic situation, and uncertainty about the future have significantly changed the situation in such families, which hinders the development of this trend. All these negative phenomena indicate that the state of the family in Russian society has distinct features of the crisis, which adversely affect the situation of children.

A high level of income and quality of housing conditions (2 or more times higher than social norms), which allows not only to meet the basic needs of life support, but also to use various types of services, indicates that the family is financially secure and has a high socioeconomic status. The level of well-being of a prosperous family is 15-20% higher than the average; such a family solves its problems on its own, without outside help.

If the material well-being of the family meets the minimum social standards, i.e. the family copes with meeting the basic needs of life support, but experiences a shortage of material resources to meet leisure, educational and other social needs, then such a family is considered low-income, its socio-economic status is average .

If the level of family income, as well as the quality of housing conditions, is below the established norms (subsistence level, etc.), as a result of which the family cannot satisfy the most urgent needs for food, clothing, housing, then such a family is considered poor, its socio-economic status -- low .

All these social problems, one way or another, affect the life of the family, and therefore affect the interests of children. At the same time, the future of the country depends on how children live, develop and learn. Let us consider below a number of indicators that sufficiently characterize the true situation of children today and make it possible to trace alarming trends in the development of the younger generation and society as a whole. We will take family, health, education, and recreation as indicators. According to statistical data, the number of children and adolescents under the age of 18 is declining every year: at the beginning of 1996 it amounted to 37.6 million people, at the beginning of 1997 - 36.7 million people, at the beginning of 1998 - 35.9 million people. Over the years, the proportion of children in the total population has decreased from 26.2% to 24.4%.

Total fertility rate in 1997 Was equal to 8.6 per 1000 population and decreased compared to 1996 by 3.4%. The number of children born per woman during her lifetime was 1.23 (in 1996 - 1.28) against 2.14 - 2.15 required for simple reproduction of the population.

The next indicator of family well-being is the level of employment of the population, the availability of work, and hence the corresponding cash receipts to the family budget. In 1997, 2.2 million unemployed were officially registered, which accounted for 2.8% of the economically active population. Real unemployment is estimated by experts at about 3.3 times higher. As of January 1, 1998, 901,000 unemployed had minor children and disabled children as dependents; Of these, 75,000 unemployed are parents who are the only breadwinners, and 89,000 unemployed had three or more minor children.

An important element of well-being is housing security, as well as the potential for improving housing conditions. In 1997, 6.76 million families (13% of all families) were registered to improve housing conditions, including 302,000 large families and 372,000 young families. At the same time, the slowdown in housing construction and the transition from providing housing for free to buying it, while reducing the size of savings for the vast majority of Russian families, make it problematic to improve the living conditions of families with children and, consequently, create normal conditions for the development and life of children in the short term. All these phenomena have led to the development of negative trends in the field of marriage and family relations: against the backdrop of a steady decline in the number of registered marriages, there is an increase in the number of broken families. In general, the number of divorces of spouses with children increased from 1989 to 1994 by more than 20%. Since 1995, there has been a slight decrease in the number of divorces. However, this trend is very unstable, and still the situation is alarming, since every year about half a million children remain with one parent. As a result, today every seventh child in the country is brought up in an incomplete family with all the ensuing social, psychological and pedagogical consequences.

The family of social risk includes families whose social functioning is difficult. These are, first of all, families with many children, single-parent families, single mothers, with disabled children or disabled parents, orphans, or foster children, that is, families with an excessive dependency load. This group should also include families where parents avoid paying alimony; families of refugees and internally displaced persons; families of conscripts and those living in depressed regions; families of the unemployed; families with a low subsistence level; parents-pupils or students; families with disabled parents.

The group with antisocial behavior includes families with parents suffering from alcohol and drug addiction, parents or delinquent children. Almost all of these families are often low-income, because the average per capita income in the above families is below the subsistence level.

A crisis family is one that is below the poverty line.

The number and proportion of such families with children under 16 is especially high. In 1995 Poor families among families with children were 54.3%, while among families without children - 24.5%; There are 2.3 times more poor families in rural areas than in urban areas. The category: family of social risk includes families whose social functioning is difficult. These are, first of all, families with many children, single-parent families, single mothers, with disabled children or disabled parents, orphans, or foster children, that is, families with an excessive dependency load. This group should also include families where parents avoid paying alimony; families of refugees and internally displaced persons; families of conscripts and those living in depressed regions; families of the unemployed; families with a low subsistence level; parents-pupils or students; families with disabled parents.

The group with antisocial behavior includes families with parents suffering from alcohol and drug addiction, parents or delinquent children. Almost all of these families are often low-income, because the average per capita income in the above families is below the subsistence minimum.

The state of childhood is primarily determined by the state of the family as the main institution for the upbringing and socialization of the child. The position of the family is determined, first of all, by the standard of living that it can provide. The concept of the standard of living includes two indicators: the subsistence minimum and the average level of income. According to statistics, in recent years, on average, 28% of the country's population had real cash incomes below the subsistence level.

We can safely talk about the formation of a vast layer of the poor in the country: in 1990, the number of people whose incomes did not reach the subsistence level was 2.3 million people, in 1999 it was estimated at 31 million people (21% of the population), and according to the estimates of the Center for Living Standards of the Ministry of Labor of Russia, it significantly exceeds this figure, amounting to 40-45 million, or a third of the total population. Families working with two or more children were among the poorest, since the average salary allows you to have only one (very modestly well-to-do) dependent, and the child allowance, even for those receiving it, is no more than 15% of the per capita subsistence minimum.

The need has become a sustainable reality for millions of people who have not only found themselves in extreme conditions (the unemployed, refugees, large families, single, low-income parents, etc.), but also for those who previously could earn money for themselves and their dependents - for employees of budgetary and crisis sectors: defense, mechanical engineering, light industry, agriculture. These are the Russian “new poor”, whose low income was formed due to the traditionally low price work force which does not provide the majority of workers with even the minimum means to support themselves and their families.

Thus, the level of poverty remains high, up to 30% of the population of Russia do not have a living wage, in connection with this, the number of families whose functioning is difficult, the so-called risk families, is increasing, these negative phenomena indicate that the state of the family in Russian society is clearly pronounced features of the crisis that adversely affect the situation of children.

Issues under consideration:

1. Poverty as a socio-economic problem
2. Forms of social work with low-income citizens

1. Poverty as a socio-economic problem

low income- a special state of material insecurity of people, when the income of a person or family does not allow maintaining consumption that is socially necessary for life, which acts as a social risk factor.

Social risk from the standpoint of the onset of low income is a measure of the expected consequences of economic insolvency, the onset of which contains the likelihood of loss or limitation of financial independence and social well-being of a person.

As a personal problem, poverty is the insufficiency of a material resource as a means of meeting the economic and social needs of a person. The life situation of low-income citizens of working age is characterized by low social status, the formation of an inferiority complex, and the growth of social apathy. For children brought up in low-income families, there is a danger of lowering social standards, the development of aggressiveness both in relation to the state, society, and to individual layers, groups of the population, and individuals. For elderly citizens experiencing material difficulties, this provision causes disappointment in relation to the state they served, paid taxes, defended in wartime.

The concept of poverty is historically conditioned, multifactorial. In the USSR, the official recognition of the problem of socio-economic inequality occurred in the 1970s, when benefits for low-income children were introduced. But even before that, the topic of low-paid and low-income people was present with periodic increases in the minimum wage. wages and pensions, the establishment of certain social benefits and payments for the population.

However, in Soviet times, a rather narrow circle of people was classified as low-income, mainly on the basis of demographic characteristics: age, health status, loss of a breadwinner, increased dependency burden on a working person. By social grounds- a certain role was played by low qualifications, professional status. However, these characteristics were not necessarily accompanied by low incomes. Territorial differences in living standards were of some importance - due to inequality in economic development regions, as well as in the city and in the countryside, etc. However, the socio-economic factors that identify the zone of low income in those conditions are clearly inferior to the current situation in modern conditions.

Political and socio-economic processes in the post-Soviet period were accompanied not only by an increase in the scale of negative social phenomena, rooted in previous years, but also by the emergence of new ones - poverty of the population, low income for the majority of citizens, unemployment, homelessness, etc., as a result - population growth, in need of social support. All this required in the mid-90s of the XX - early XI century active actions on the part of the state to develop new documents aimed at improving the efficiency of the system of social protection of the population.

Russia adopted laws and other regulations, both at the federal and regional levels, providing for an increase in the number of categories of the population recognized as socially vulnerable; the list of social payments, benefits, compensations, services (social assistance) provided to them has expanded. A system of bodies, institutions and enterprises that perform these functions emerged and began to expand. Expenditures for these purposes from the budgets of all levels, extrabudgetary social funds (pension, social and compulsory medical insurance) have increased. This and much more testified to a radical restructuring and improvement of the entire system of social protection - one of the most important social institutions, both social policy and modern society as a whole, aimed at solving the problem of poverty.

In the current socio-economic conditions, social protection is aimed at targeted support for individual strata and groups of the population that are most in need of it. The category of low-income most often includes: families with low monetary income per family member (most often these are families with many children); citizens who have lost their breadwinner; mothers raising children alone; disabled people; elderly; pensioners receiving insufficient pension; students living on a scholarship; unemployed; persons affected by natural disasters, political and social conflicts and other categories of citizens. All these people need social protection from society and the state.

Social support for low-income citizens can manifest itself in a variety of forms: in the form of financial assistance; providing material goods, free food, shelter, shelter; providing medical, legal, psychological assistance; patronage, guardianship, adoption. This takes into account the material and social situation of the individual.
There are no people free from needs and desires. Any person needs something, in certain goods and services. And of course, not all of his needs can be satisfied by a person, taking into account both material and social, psychological factors. In this regard, we can talk about the level of need and, as a result, low income.

Need in the broad sense of the word can take both material and non-material forms. A person may experience needs at the level of unfulfilled economic and creative opportunities, career growth, arrangement of personal life, family and feel in need in these areas. In this sense, any member of society, every citizen can be attributed to any group of people in need.

However, in the context of social work as a direction for the implementation of social policy, first of all, the tasks of overcoming various options for material need (indigence), the insufficiency of meeting such human needs (for food, clothing, accommodation, treatment) that are directly related to the prospects of his existence should be solved. This is what is included in the priority, immediate tasks of social protection.

The peculiarity of social work with the low-income is that its effectiveness depends on the degree of assistance to those who have fallen under the situation of socio-economic risk. To determine the level of material insecurity, it is important to assess the possibility of a risk, that is, to determine the likelihood of harm, the severity of the consequences. It is produced by identifying risk factors for the onset of poverty, their intensity, and the magnitude of the damage.

A risk factor is understood as a source of danger, loss or restriction of economic independence and social well-being of a person. The scheme for assessing risk factors includes their ranking based on qualitative and quantitative comparisons, which requires natural indicators that characterize the danger.

Low income risk intensity- is the probability (frequency) of the realization of danger in a certain period of time, i.e. the number of cases considered (for example, lack of funds for the purchase of essentials) in a specific unit of time. The amount of damage from the onset of material need is characterized by a list of resulting indicators that can be grouped as social and economic.

Social indicators (consequences)- this is an increase in the level of mortality, disability, complete or partial loss of the ability to carry out self-service, training, labor activity, movement, communication, control over their behavior for health reasons and (or) socio-economic circumstances.

Economic indicators- these are the forced costs of a person, family, society to compensate for the consequences of the realization of a danger caused by social risk (poor income). Social indicators help to assess the level of social protection of people in the state, and economic indicators allow us to compare the levels and significance of material insecurity, the possibility of minimizing damage from it.

In the complex, the system of social protection is aimed at assessing the economic and social consequences of the onset of material insecurity, at building mechanisms for the prevention of this social phenomenon. In modern conditions, it is very important that poverty does not develop into a stagnant form of its manifestation. In the current socio-economic conditions, it is typical for certain categories of unemployed citizens, refugees and internally displaced persons, persons without a fixed place of residence, people released from places of deprivation of liberty. The essence of the effectiveness of social work in solving the problem of improving the financial situation of these categories of the population is expressed in the ability of the state and society, the system of social protection of the population or its individual elements to respond positively and respond to the requests, needs of residents, primarily its socially vulnerable part.

After ten years of uninterrupted economic growth and improving the well-being of people, Russia at the end of 2008 faced the most serious economic challenges. Global financial crisis led in all countries of the world to a drop in production, an increase in unemployment, and a decrease in incomes of the population. In the current conditions, the role of state institutions at all levels in the socio-economic life of the country is objectively increasing.

The challenge is to make public commitments Russian government adopted during the period of improvement of the economic situation in the country were implemented in full and in the context of the crisis. This implies strengthening the social protection of the population, increasing the volume and quality of social services. It is important to prevent the transition to chronic forms of poverty among certain categories of citizens, to maintain social well-being and stability in the state.

In the legal acts of the Russian Federation, the concept of a poor person is often used to determine the property status of a client. On the basis of the Federal Law "On the subsistence minimum in the Russian Federation" dated October 24, 1997 No. 134-FZ. A family or a single citizen whose average per capita income is below the subsistence minimum established in the corresponding subject of the Russian Federation is recognized as the poor. This category of citizens has the right to receive social support, including the provision of housing under a social contract of employment.

The state strives to create conditions for containing and overcoming the problem of economic insolvency of citizens. First of all, this concerns the working and socially unprotected categories of the country's population.

The solution to the problem involves:

1. Social payments and benefits financed from the federal budget are indexed to the new inflation forecast. This applies, first of all, to pensions, a package of state benefits for children, maternity (family) capital, as well as to payments made under the legislation on social support for certain categories of citizens eligible for state social assistance.
2. The previously adopted decision to increase the average amount of social pensions has been implemented. This means an increase in social pensions, as well as the basic, state-guaranteed part of labor pensions in excess of price increases.
3. Increasing the level of providing the population of the Russian Federation with the necessary medicines, carrying out a set of measures to expand the availability of high-quality, effective and safe medicines.
4. Special measures have been taken to reduce social tension in relation to the deteriorating situation in the labor market. First of all, an increase in the maximum amount of unemployment benefits.
5. Work is underway to restructure debt on mortgage loans for people who have temporarily lost their jobs. Work is underway to strengthen the targeting of the system of subsidies to the population to compensate for the cost of paying for housing and communal services.
6. Due to the crisis processes in the economy, students, primarily those studying on a paid basis, as well as students who used or planned to use educational loans, found themselves in a difficult situation. Therefore, measures are being taken to provide social support to students. Among such measures is the development of an experiment on educational lending with the establishment of a low interest rate on loans (no more than 11.5% per year) and strengthening the role of state support for students in vocational schools.
7. Support is provided to the constituent entities of the Russian Federation that are not able to independently ensure the implementation of priority social obligations to citizens living in the region.

The measures taken by the government to improve the financial situation of the population show that the state policy in modern conditions is aimed at solving the issues of social protection of citizens and the prevention of poverty as a socio-economic phenomenon. The purpose of social support is to provide material and financial and other assistance to those in need, to establish guardianship and patronage over them. At the same time, the main thing is the stimulation of personal, socially significant initiative, creativity, the creation of conditions under which a citizen himself could find a way out of a difficult socio-economic situation.

To solve this problem, it will be necessary to modernize and develop the social services sector, targeted programs for the poor and low-income categories of the population. Formation of a system of social support and adaptation that meets the needs of modern society, which, in addition to social protection, implements the functions of social development and creates accessible mechanisms for a “social lift” for everyone, including socially vulnerable categories of the population.

Thus, poverty as a socio-economic problem is, first of all, the insufficiency of material resources to meet the economic and social needs of a person. On the part of the state, solving this problem requires achieving social harmony, promoting the development of mechanisms for social adaptation and social support for the population, reducing social inequality. Measures that ensure the solution of these problems should be aimed at harmonizing the actions of markets, the state, and the family in the field of raising the level and quality of life of the population, creating in Russia a society of equal opportunities for all categories of citizens.

2. Forms of social work with low-income citizens

Low-income citizens experience a state of poverty in which a person or social group (family) cannot fully satisfy the basic needs necessary to maintain health and livelihoods due to lack or insufficiency of funds.

The subsistence minimum is the main criterion for determining the level of poverty in the Russian Federation. It refers to the valuation of the consumer basket, as well as mandatory payments and fees. The consumer basket includes a minimum set of food products, non-food products and services necessary for human life support.

Low-income customers who cannot purchase all the products, goods and services included in the consumer basket include low-income families and citizens living alone.

According to Federal Law No. 134-FZ of October 24, 1997 "On the subsistence minimum in the Russian Federation", a family whose average per capita income is below the subsistence level established in the corresponding subject of the Russian Federation is considered poor and is entitled to receive social support. When calculating the average per capita income, persons related by kinship are included in the composition of a low-income family. These include spouses living together and maintaining a joint household, their children and parents, adoptive parents and adopted children, brothers and sisters, stepchildren and stepdaughters.

The poor are also considered citizens living alone, whose income is below the subsistence level established in the corresponding subject of the Russian Federation.

Social work with low-income and lonely citizens is carried out with the help of individual and group forms of social work. Individuals include initial appointments, counseling, etc. For group: social patronage, festive events dedicated to the "Day of the Elderly", "Day of the Disabled", public works, organization of hot meals, distribution of food packages, industrial essential goods (soap, washing powder, toothpaste and etc.).

During the initial appointment, the social work specialist collects information about the reasons that led to the low property status or poverty of the client. He tells the citizen about the types of state social assistance, lists and explains the requirements for paperwork required to receive social services. A specialist in social work clarifies the following information from a person: his age, actual and real place of residence, marital status. According to the client (in the absence of documents: certificates of employment, birth certificates of children), information about the place of work, the presence of children under the age of 18 is entered. The social work specialist enters all this data into the registration log. For a second consultation, a citizen must provide all the documents necessary for the provision of state assistance to him. The social work specialist explains to the client how to apply for the provision of social services and agrees with him on the date of social patronage.

special shape social services at home is social patronage, which involves visiting clients for diagnostic, social and rehabilitation purposes. This form social work reveals the resources of a poor citizen, contributing to a way out of a difficult life situation. When providing social assistance to low-income citizens, primary and planned social patronage is used.

Primary social patronage is carried out to identify, register and provide emergency assistance to the client. Planned social patronage allows you to identify possible changes that have occurred in a low-income citizen since the last visit.

Social patronage of poor clients includes the following stages: preparatory, main, final.

1. The preparatory stage involves planning a visit to the client's family at home (an agreement with him on the time and date of the visit), determining the purpose of patronage, and choosing methods of social diagnostics. A social work specialist develops in advance a scenario for conducting an interview with a person who has fallen into a difficult life situation, including questions characterizing the socio-economic situation, the psychological climate of the family.
2. The main stage of social patronage is visiting the client at home, conducting social diagnostics (the specialist can record the necessary information in the social patronage notebook, which indicates the client’s last name, first name, patronymic, address, living conditions of the family, the availability of conditions for recreation, food, organization of his leisure) provision of advisory assistance, social services.
3. The final stage is summing up the results of social patronage, which includes an analysis of the results of social diagnostics, the development of recommendations by a specialist on how to get a low-income citizen out of a difficult life situation, and the provision of emergency assistance to him.

The social work specialist draws up the results of social patronage in the form of an act of examination of living conditions, in the case of primary social patronage, the client's social card is filled out. Then the poor citizen is invited to a second consultation.

Consulting is carried out in order to choose the type of social assistance and determine the average per capita income of a single client or family.

The average per capita income of a client or family living alone is calculated by a social work specialist in accordance with the Federal Law of the Russian Federation of March 07, 2003 “On the procedure for accounting for income and calculating the average per capita income of a family and the income of a citizen living alone to recognize them as poor and provide them with state social assistance ".

On the basis of the above Federal Law, the average per capita income of a family when deciding whether to recognize it as poor and to provide it with state social assistance is calculated by dividing one third of the income of all family members for the billing period by the number of family members.

When deciding whether to recognize a citizen living alone as a poor person and to provide him with state social assistance, his income is determined as one third of the client's income for the billing period.

When calculating the average per capita income, the family does not include:

• conscripted military personnel as sergeants, foremen, soldiers or sailors, as well as military personnel studying in the military educational institutions vocational education and have not entered into a military service contract;
• persons serving a sentence in the form of deprivation of liberty, persons in respect of whom a preventive measure in the form of detention has been applied, as well as persons undergoing compulsory treatment by a court decision;
• persons who are fully supported by the state.

When determining the average per capita income of a family and the income of a lone citizen, a social work specialist takes into account the amount of income of each family member or lone citizen received both in cash and in kind over the last three calendar months preceding the month of filing an application for state social security. help. During the consultation, the social work specialist accepts all documents from the client (certificates: about the composition of the family, about the amount of wages, about the amount of pensions, scholarships, etc.) and conducts their initial examination. Then the presence of the seal and signature of the responsible persons who certified the documents is checked, it is monitored whether the application for state social assistance is correctly executed by the client, whether all sources of income are reflected in it. A social work specialist has the right to check the following information indicated by a citizen in an application for state social assistance: the place of residence or stay of a family or a single client; income; the degree of kinship of family members, their cohabitation and management of a joint household; property owned by a citizen by right of ownership.

Are used various ways verification of the information provided by the applicant. One of the most effective ways is to make a request to various services that have information that characterizes the client's difficult life situation. As part of the agreement between the social service institution and the organization, the necessary information specified by the citizen in the application is requested by a social work specialist. This saves clients time collecting documents that the social worker can verify on their own.

Further, the social work specialist, having determined the average per capita income of a family or a single citizen, appoints the type of state social assistance, namely social benefits, social supplements to pensions, subsidies, services and essential goods or other measures of social support.

In accordance with the Federal Law of the Russian Federation dated July 17, 1999 No. 178-FZ “On State Social Assistance”, social benefits are considered as the gratuitous provision of a certain amount of money to citizens at the expense of the budget system of the Russian Federation. In addition to cash payments to low-income clients, social services are provided in social service institutions.

A set of social services is a list that includes additional free medical care (providing necessary medicines, medical products, and specialized medical foods for disabled children on prescription from a doctor or paramedic); providing, if there are medical indications, a voucher for sanatorium-and-spa treatment; medicines. The list also includes free commuter travel. railway transport, on long-distance transport to the place of treatment and back.

The social supplement to the pension is defined as sum of money, paid to a low-income elderly citizen for retirement and individual measures of social support provided in kind. The federal social supplement to the pension is established for the pensioner territorial bodies pension fund Russian Federation, if total amount his material security does not reach the subsistence level. The regional social supplement to the pension is established for the elderly citizen by the authorized body executive power subject of the Russian Federation if the total amount of his material support does not reach the subsistence level of a pensioner. The social supplement to the client's pension is set in such an amount that the specified total amount of his material support, taking into account this supplement, reaches the subsistence minimum for a pensioner established in the constituent entity of the Russian Federation. This type of state social assistance is not paid during the period when the client performs work or other activities, during which he is subject to mandatory pension insurance.

Subsidies include targeted purposes of full or partial payment to citizens of social services. They are provided to clients if their expenses for housing and utilities, calculated on the basis of the size of regional standards for the normative area of ​​residential premises and the size of regional standards for the cost of housing and communal services, exceed the value corresponding to the maximum allowable share of citizens' expenses for paying for housing and utilities in the total family income. At the same time, for low-income families, the maximum allowable share of expenses is reduced in accordance with a correction factor equal to the ratio of the family's average per capita income to the subsistence minimum. The following low-income citizens have the right to receive a subsidy in accordance with the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation “On the provision of subsidies for payment for housing and utilities” of the Russian Federation dated December 14, 2005 N 761:

• users of residential premises in the state or municipal housing stock;
• tenants of residential premises under a lease agreement in a private housing stock;
• members of a housing or housing-construction cooperative;
• owners of residential premises (apartment, residential building, part of an apartment or residential building).

Subsidies are provided to clients in the absence of arrears in payment of housing and utilities or upon conclusion of agreements with them to repay them. The amount of this type of state social assistance is calculated on a monthly basis and depends on the amount of expenses for paying for housing and utilities, calculated on the basis of regional standards for the cost of housing and communal services, the standard area of ​​housing and the allowable share of citizens' expenses for paying for housing and utilities in the total family income. The amount of the subsidy provided should not exceed the actual expenses of the family for housing and utilities.

After registration of state social assistance, a social work specialist enters information about the client into an automated database of low-income citizens, which contains the following information: family composition, place of residence, passport data, composition of property owned, income, family category (full, incomplete , single mother, pensioners, family with a disabled child), a citizen living alone.

In some regions of the country, such a type of targeted social assistance has been introduced for low-income citizens living alone as charitable hot meals. Elderly people, disabled people, people with neuropsychiatric diseases and those who find themselves in extreme situations can visit social canteens. For clients with mobility restrictions, hot meals and semi-finished products are delivered to their homes.

The next interesting form of work with the poor categories of the population is the organization of a small farmstead. Comprehensive centers of social services for the population purchase for low-income pensioners and the disabled, as well as families with children living in rural areas, livestock, poultry, animal feed, etc.

In addition, in some institutions of social service of the population, mutual aid funds are organized, where cash used for emergency financial assistance low-income citizens by issuing interest-free loans with a maturity of up to one year.

Non-working pensioners and disabled people receiving a social pension, as well as pregnant women, can be given the opportunity to travel free of charge once a quarter on all types of public transport. Poor citizens can visit health facilities, close relatives, as needed. Payment for trips due to social need is carried out by social service centers upon presentation by the client travel tickets and personal statement.

Specialists in social work hold fairs of products manufactured at the enterprises of public organizations of the disabled, workshops of social service centers for the population, and social rehabilitation institutions. This form of social work with low-income citizens allows them to profit from the sale of products, maintain and increase jobs for them, gives people the opportunity to feel able to work and create products that are in demand.

The state develops social work with low-income citizens with the help of such a new organizational and legal form as “social subsidy agreements”. This social contract, concluded between a citizen and a social service institution at the place of residence, guarantees the provision of cash payments to those low-income families who take active steps to find work, lead a healthy lifestyle, take care of children, and do not commit asocial acts and illegal actions.

Thus, social work with low-income categories of the population is carried out using individual and group forms. The primary reception of clients, as an individual interaction between a specialist and a client, allows you to determine the degree of need of a person or his family and determine a strategy for helping him. Social patronage refers to group forms of social work with a poor citizen; as a result of its implementation, a specialist receives information about the organization of the client's life, the frequency of his meals, employment, etc. In order to prevent a dependent position among poor citizens, many other forms of social work are also used to increase their income.

The family is one of those phenomena, the interest in which has always been stable and widespread. As a necessary component social structure any society and performing multiple social functions The family plays an important role in social development. In recent years, attention to the problems of the family has increased significantly.

V.N. Gurov defines "family" as a small group based on family ties and regulating relations between spouses, parents and children, as well as immediate relatives.

Yu.V Vasilkova claims that the family - social group having a historically defined organization whose members are related by marriage or kinship ( as well as relationships for taking children to raise ), common life, mutual moral responsibility and social necessity, which is due to the need of society for the physical and spiritual reproduction of the population.

We are closer to the opinion of T.P. Dusanova, who defines the family as a small social group based on marriage or consanguinity, whose members are connected by common life, mutual duties and emotional closeness. Here, marriage is understood as a historically conditioned form of relations between a man and a woman, sanctioned and regulated by society, which gives rise to mutual obligations and responsibility towards children.

As T.I. Shulga, at different periods of a family's life, the hierarchy of family functions changes, then one or the other takes a priority place. In their unity, the functions of the family are a system of family relations; the occurrence of dysfunction in this system, i.e. discrepancies in their interaction as a whole, brings the system into a crisis state. Ignoring, and sometimes complete refusal of the family, according to V.I. Kurbatov, for one reason or another, from performing any function destabilizes the image of the family, there is a threat of its collapse. .

In the light of our study, we are interested in such a concept as a "low-income family". In accordance with the Federal Law of the Russian Federation “On State Social Assistance” dated August 11, 1995 No. 135, a family whose average per capita income is below the subsistence level established in the corresponding subject of the Russian Federation is considered low-income and is entitled to receive state social assistance. Low-income citizens are partially or completely disabled citizens, in particular, those who do not have able-bodied close relatives; pensioners; disabled people; lonely elderly people; large families; dysfunctional families; families of the unemployed. Now the low-income group is replenished by families with young children (especially under 6 years old), young families (especially student families, families of refugees and internally displaced persons, families of state employees).

In our work, we will use the concept of "low-income family" in the interpretation of Kurbatov as a family whose income level does not exceed the consumer minimum.

The standard of living of a low-income family is most often below the poverty line, it experiences serious problems with survival, including the physical preservation of marital relations, and the upbringing of children. In this case, of course, it is necessary to provide assistance in finding employment (creating new jobs, retraining and retraining), without abusing equalizing allowances and one-time humanitarian aid, in finding free ways to obtain information and advice.

Talking about family poverty is both simple and difficult at the same time, because its forms are diverse. If we talk about the causes of low income in this area, then everything is not as simple as it might seem at first glance. Drastic changes in the economy, politics, social sphere had a negative impact not only on the material side of the family, but also on the relationships of its members. In general, a low-income family is one in which the structure is broken, the basic family functions are depreciated or ignored, as a result of which the psychological climate is disturbed.

Many families who have had a bad experience of improving their difficult situation are afraid to put themselves at risk again. Instead, they prefer to be in a state of rage and rejection of the world around them. The state of crisis eventually becomes the norm for them, they cease to show their own initiative. Families learn to defend themselves in their own way when faced with difficulties. The paradox lies in the fact that excitement, rage bring them a certain comfort as proof that nothing can be done and therefore their state is natural.

Thus, in general, one can distinguish such features of people from low-income families as: lack of initiative, passivity; shifting responsibility to others; inability to set goals to achieve them; fear of risk; desire to blame others for their troubles.

The reason for the crisis situation of families can be conditionally divided into economic and social. Economic - such as loss of a job, non-payment of wages or benefits, low wages - are the most characteristic.

Among the social causes are often found such as alcoholism, parasitism, illegal behavior of one or both spouses. As a rule, this is accompanied by a low cultural level, lack of spirituality, irresponsibility towards children. A child growing up in such a family is often unbalanced, psychologically depressed, forms stereotypes of social behavior that are inadequate to the general social and cultural environment. Very often, children from such families are difficult children, difficult teenagers, young offenders are recruited from among them.

Often family members shift care for each other, for children, to outside specialists, since they cannot live without outside control, taking a passive position and giving specialists the right to find a way out of the difficult situation of their family. This leads to dependency, the desire to blame society for their troubles, while masking the real state of affairs in the family and their own doing nothing.

Another reason that leads a family to the category of low-income families is an incomplete family.

An incomplete family is a family with one parent, in recent years such families have become common. The parent in such a family is the mother, fathers are rare. American researchers have identified only 2.8% of families where the father brings up children alone. Such a family is the result of divorce, the prolonged absence or death of one of the parents, and the birth of an illegitimate child. Today there are 25% of such families where the head of the family is the mother. These families require special attention from the social worker. This family most often lives below the poverty line, the income of a woman is less than that of men, and after a divorce, the father contributes only a third of his salary to the budget. These families need state support. And in the most difficult situation is the family, where children are born out of wedlock. Underage single mothers with a child are doomed to poverty.

We are close to the point of view of Yu.V. Vasilkova, who considers an incomplete family as a family with one parent.

In recent years, such families have become commonplace. The parent in such a family is the mother, fathers are rare. Such a family is the result of a divorce, prolonged absence or death of one of the parents, as well as the birth of an illegitimate child.

Yu.V. Vasilkova highlights such a reason for the formation of low-income families as the initial formation of a family, when the newlyweds separate and leave a large family and cannot cope with financial difficulties.

The family introduces the child into society, it is in the family that the child receives social education, becomes a person, parents open the world to the child, help to choose a life path. Many parents in the family are not yet financially ready to have children, which subsequently leads to poverty. .

The reasons causing the growth of low-income families are very diverse, V.I. Kurbatov highlights the following:

• 1. Economic reasons: a large number of families have a subsistence level below the poverty line due to excessive dependency burden per working member. Families with many children; families that include disabled people - adults or children; families with low wages; families of the unemployed.
• 2. Asocial causes: alcoholism or drug addiction of the family or one of its members, illegal behavior, prostitution, plus a low cultural level. As a result, children from such families more often than others fall into criminal companies.
• 3. Psychological causes: cruelty, aggressiveness, rudeness, conflict, jealousy, adultery, selfishness, greed, imbalance of character.
• 4. Medical reasons: chronic infectious and venereal diseases, mental and sexual deviations, impotence.
• 5. Incomplete families. As a result of the unscrupulous performance of their duties by parents, groups of neglected children, street children, runaway children arise.
• 6. Families with many children currently consistently account for a very small proportion of the total number of families. Moreover, often having many children is not planned, but accidental (the birth of twins or the birth of a child as a result of the ineffectiveness of contraception or the impossibility, due to the state of the woman's health, to resort to termination of pregnancy).

An analysis of the theoretical literature shows that there is such a category of incomplete families - incomplete extended families, which are formed, as a rule, as a result of some kind of social catastrophe: the death of parents of young children, the parents being in prison, the deprivation of their parental rights, drunkenness - most often this forces the generation of grandparents to take their grandchildren for maintenance and upbringing. Such families, of course, have a low level of income; a number of difficulties are caused by the poor health of older people, their weaker adaptive abilities, inability to adapt to the realities of our time; unfortunately, sometimes they cannot use their authority, the ability to control the situation, so children often demonstrate deviant forms of behavior.

Families in which large families are planned (for example, in connection with national traditions, religious prescriptions, cultural and ideological positions, family traditions). Such families experience many difficulties due to low income, cramped housing, the workload of parents (especially mothers), their state of health, but parents have a motivation to raise children;

Low-income large families, formed as a result of irresponsible behavior of parents, sometimes against the background of intellectual and mental decline, alcoholism, antisocial lifestyle. Children from such large families especially often need help, rehabilitation, suffer from diseases and underdevelopment. In the event of the loss of parental care, their fate is especially difficult to arrange, because family law prevents the separation of children from one family, and it is far from always possible to adopt 3-7 children of different ages and varying degrees of social maladjustment.

The number of divorces in low-income families is much higher - fathers are more often unable to withstand constant difficulties and leave the family.

Family problems do not depend on the social status of the family and can be inherent in a wealthy, intelligent, and low-income or poorly educated family. Currently, social workers can provide assistance to such a family mainly at the stage of its crisis, at the time of conflict or collapse, but most social institutions are not yet able to prevent family dysfunctions and establish family communications in a pre-crisis state.

As E.I. Kholostov, the reason for the emergence of social problems in many families is, first of all, low income, since there is only one labor income in the family (sometimes there is no labor income at all, and the family is forced to live on unemployment benefits or child benefits). The income of a woman, as a rule, is significantly lower than that of a man, due to her lagging behind in the social ladder, caused by her childcare responsibilities. Child support income, if the children are entitled to and receive it, usually covers no more than half the cost of their maintenance. Socio-economic problems are not inherent in all incomplete families; in any case, they are easier to resolve than the socio-psychological problems present in the intrapersonal sphere and interpersonal relations of members of single-parent families, especially children.

In the light of our research, we are interested in such a concept as "social work with a low-income family."

Social work with a low-income family is understood as a professional activity, the purpose of which is to assist families to meet their needs for social adaptation, restoration or acquisition of certain skills for independent functioning in society, in improving their social position. Social work helps a person to find harmony in life, regulation of his relations with his family and social groups.

A social worker, based on the principle of maximizing the minimum (the desire to maximize the minimum resources of social assistance), should not only help the family survive difficulties by attracting funds from philanthropists or observing the fair distribution of state assistance, but also teach the family self-help mutual assistance, which give a greater effect than the most generous donations. It must be remembered that morally it is always better to earn your own income than social dependency.

The main challenges facing social worker in working with a low-income family, it is the provision of information and advice through which the family can cope with the problems that caused them a difficult life situation, with the help of public institutions, organs local government and non-governmental organizations, organization and direct assistance to a family in a difficult life situation, necessary assistance, advice and support and stimulation of social activity and mutual assistance to meet the vital needs of such families.

Thus, the family is an association of people based on marriage or consanguinity, connected by common life and mutual responsibility. In the family, a person learns the norms and rules of human behavior. When a family ignores, and sometimes completely refuses for one reason or another, to perform any function, destabilizes the image of the family, there is a threat of its collapse. Families whose social functioning is difficult or disrupted for subjective or objective reasons, and their existence as families is under threat, are characterized as low-income families.