Hello.
You need to apply for various public benefits at the Social Work Centres. There is support for a single entry point and an overview of the entitlements a family has. However, we could make it easier for parents to claim their rights in the following ways:
- subsidised school meals: when registering a pupil for school meals, the parent should be able to indicate on the registration form whether he/she wishes to claim the right to subsidised school meals, so no application to the CSD would be necessary; not all parents want subsidised school meals (in the draft amendments to the social legislation, a change is proposed where schools should see the percentage of income/family member as the entitlement to child benefit; this option is also supported; the problem only arises if the parent does not have the right to child benefit - e.g. if the child is not entitled to a child benefit, if the child is not entitled to a school meal). For example, if the parent has forgotten to make an application or has an adult pupil who is no longer entitled to child benefit but is still entitled to subsidised midday meals;
- Kindergarten subsidy: when enrolling a child in kindergarten, the parent should be able to declare whether he/she wishes to claim the kindergarten subsidy; the application should allow kindergartens to enter the parents' identification, and a batch transfer should be made from the kindergartens' application to the CSDs' system for those applications where the parents wish to claim the subsidy (migrated applications, e.g. transfers for the childcare allowance were made when the new social legislation came into force).
- decisions on parental care and family benefit entitlements (except child benefit) are compulsorily served in person; we consider that this cost could be reduced by defining, when this legislation is amended, the method of service as defined by the ZUJF for public benefit entitlements (ordinary service)
- CSDs are required to send M1 forms to the Health Insurance Fund for beneficiaries of the Health Insurance Fund; we suggest that a link be established as soon as possible to allow the Health Insurance Fund to consult the list of beneficiaries of the Health Insurance Fund, so that the sending of paper forms is no longer necessary;
- municipalities are legally obliged to pay a contribution for compulsory health insurance for their citizens; in the case of insurance of a natural person by a social work centre (insurance is provided only if the legal conditions are met and only from the 1st day of the month following the month of application), the municipality is obliged to pay a monthly contribution for each person of approx. EUR 30 for the whole month, regardless of the date of withdrawal from the insurance.
- If the individual takes out compulsory health insurance himself (with the Health Insurance Institute of the Republic of Slovenia), the individual is liable to pay a monthly contribution of approximately EUR 15. In order to achieve the same objective and to use the budgetary resources economically, it would therefore be better for the municipality to directly transfer the funds to the beneficiary for the payment of the monthly contribution and for the beneficiary to settle this monthly obligation on his/her own.
Social welfare staff are required to have passed a professional examination in social welfare. This alone means:
- memorising at least 50 laws and regulations (as part of the preparation for the judicial exam). This is a life-long learning process, lasting from 3-6 months, and if you happen to get lucky with the often unlifelike and rude board, you pass it first time. In most cases, however, you have to take the exam several times and, of course, pay dearly for it, which is probably the aim of the Commission and the Social Chamber.It is proposed that the exam be modelled on the similar civil service exam, which has been turned into a compulsory training course, and that consideration be given to proposing a similar form of social welfare exam in this area.It is proposed that there should be a compulsory training course for at least one week (Saturdays and Sundays may be used) for the purpose of appointment to the title of social welfare officer.It is proposed that the exam be made compulsory.