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Law No. 705 Of 3 December 2001 On The National System Of Social Assistance

Original Language Title:  LEGE nr. 705 din 3 decembrie 2001 privind sistemul naţional de asistenţa socială

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LEGE no. 705 705 of 3 December 2001 on the national social assistance system
ISSUER PARLIAMENT
Published in OFFICIAL MONITOR no. 814 814 of 18 December 2001



The Romanian Parliament adopts this law + Chapter 1 General provisions + Article 1 This law regulates the organization, functioning and financing of the national social assistance system in Romania. + Article 2 Social assistance, component of the social protection system, represents the set of institutions and measures by which the state, public authorities of local government and civil society ensure the prevention, limitation or removal of effects temporary or permanent situations that may lead to the marginalisation or social exclusion of some persons. + Article 3 Social assistance has as its main objective the protection of people who, due to reasons of an economic, physical, mental or social nature, do not have the possibility to ensure their social needs, to develop their own capacities and competences for social integration. + Article 4 (1) Social need is the set of requirements indispensable for each person to ensure living conditions for social integration. (2) The assessment of social needs is carried out according to regulations established by normative acts + Article 5 (1) Social assistance is under the responsibility of specialized public institutions of central and local public administration authorities and civil society organizations. (2) For the purposes of this law, social assistance shall include the rights granted by benefits in money or in kind, as well as social services. + Article 6 The national social assistance system is based on the following general principles: a) respect for human dignity, according to which, each person is guaranteed free and full development of personality; b) the universality, according to which each person has the right to social assistance, under the conditions provided by law; c) social solidarity, according to which the community participates in supporting people who cannot ensure their social needs, to maintain and strengthen social cohesion; d) the partnership, according to which public institutions and civil society organizations cooperate in order to organize and develop social services; e) subsidiarity, according to which the state intervenes when the local initiative did not meet or sufficiently met the needs of persons. + Article 7 The State assumes the responsibility for carrying out the social assistance measures provided for by special laws and ensures the transfer of the necessary powers and financial means to the local public authorities, decentralized public services and civil society. + Article 8 Under the national social assistance plan the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity sets the priority directions in the field, it is the authority that initiates special social assistance laws, and aims to apply them to central and local level. + Article 9 In the application of social assistance measures the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity collaborates with governmental institutions, county and local councils, as well as with representatives of civil society. + Chapter 2 Entitlement to social assistance + Article 10 (1) They have the right to social assistance, under the law, all Romanian citizens residing in Romania, without distinction of race, of nationality, of ethnic origin, of language, of religion, of sex, of opinion, of political affiliation, of wealth or of social origin. ((2) The citizens of other states and stateless persons, who have their domicile or residence in Romania, are entitled to social assistance measures, under the conditions of the Romanian legislation and of the international treaties to which Romania is a party. (3) Social assistance shall be granted on request or ex officio, in accordance with the law. (4) All citizens have the right to be informed of the content and ways of granting social assistance rights. + Article 11 Social assistance rights shall be established under the conditions laid down by the special laws governing them. + Article 12 The record of beneficiaries of social assistance rights is based on the personal numerical code, with the provision, according to the law, of confidentiality of personal data. + Chapter 3 Benefits and social services + Section 1 Social benefits + Article 13 Social benefits in money or in nature are supported by financial redistribution measures and include: family allowances, social and special aid to families or persons, depending on their needs and incomes. + Article 14 Family allowances are given to families with children and are mainly considering the birth, education and maintenance of children. + Article 15 Social benefits are benefits provided in money and in the nature of persons or families whose income is insufficient to cover minimum needs. + Article 16 People with physical, sensory, mental or mental impairments benefit from special aids. + Article 17 Persons entitled to social assistance measures may also benefit from facilities provided for in special laws. + Section 2 Social services + Article 18 For the purposes of this law, social services have the objective of maintaining, restoring and developing individual capacities to overcome a situation of need, chronic or emergency, if the person or family is incapable alone to settle it. + Article 19 The state organizes and supports financially and technically the social services system, promoting a partnership with the local community and representatives of civil society. + Article 20 Social services are granted at home, in specialized day institutions or in residential institutions. + Article 21 Social services can be social-medical care services and social care services. + Article 22 (1) Social-medical care services are provided to persons who, without them, temporarily or permanently, due to physical, mental, mental or sensory conditions, are unable to carry out a dignified life, as well as people suffering from incurable diseases in the last phase. (2) Social-medical care services are carried out by specialized personnel. + Article 23 (1) The social assistance services have the objective of restoring and developing the individual and family capacities necessary to overcome with their own forces the situations of difficulty. (2) Social assistance services are professional services and are carried out by persons with qualification in the field. (3) Social assistance services are carried out through specific methods and techniques of diagnosis of the need for social assistance and intervention and consist mainly of information, counseling, individual and collective therapy. + Article 24 (1) Social assistance services may be Community social assistance services and specialised social assistance services. (2) Community social assistance services are of primary character-general and shall be granted at home, in the family and in the community. (3) The specialized social assistance services are granted for special needs both at home and in specialized institutions or within other institutions, such as: schools, hospitals, penitentiaries and other units. + Article 25 (1) The Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity establishes national priorities regarding social services and initiates draft normative acts for the regulation of their granting. (2) County and local councils shall establish local strategies and priorities according to the needs of the respective community, in accordance with the national strategy. (3) The organization of the service system and the way of granting them are approved by Government decision. + Article 26 Public institutions and private units, as well as associations and foundations that provide social services have the obligation to comply with quality standards, as well as methodological norms established according to the law. + Chapter 4 Social assistance institutions + Article 27 (1) Social assistance institutions are established and organized as specialized, public or private units. (2) Social assistance institutions provide protection, protection, hosting, care, recovery and social reintegration activities for children, persons with disabilities, elderly people and other categories of persons, depending on specific needs. + Article 28 (1) Hosting in social assistance institutions is carried out when maintaining at home is not possible and can be ordered following the social and socio-medical evaluation of the person, with his consent. (2) If the person's consent cannot be obtained, its access to social assistance institutions shall be carried out with the consent of the legal representative or, as the case may be, with the consent of the guardianship authority. + Article 29 Social assistance institutions can also provide social services at the home of people, depending on their needs. + Article 30 The nomenclature of social assistance institutions, the procedure and the way of accreditation of social, public and private assistance institutions, as the case may be, shall be established by Government decision, at the proposal of the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity. + Article 31 (1) Accredited social assistance institutions have the obligation to comply with the quality standards for the services provided, and the projects for the construction and modernization of social settlements must meet the needs of the beneficiaries. (2) Social assistance institutions provided in par. (1) have the obligation to comply with the minimum organization and functioning criteria, which are approved by Government decision. + Article 32 (1) Public institutions of social assistance, partially or totally financed from the state budget, shall be established by Government decision, and those financed from the county budget or local budgets, by decision of the county council or local. (. Public social assistance institutions shall be headed by a director whose work is supported by an advisory board composed of representatives of the beneficiaries and of the social partners. ((3) The organization and functioning of public social assistance institutions shall be established by the bodies that set them up. + Article 33 The local council together with the management of the public social assistance institution have the obligation to ensure the settlement of social emergencies from the administrative-territorial unit where the institution is based. + Chapter 5 Organisation and functioning of the national social assistance system + Section 1 At central level + Article 34 (1) Within the central public administration the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity is the authority that develops the social assistance policy, establishes the national development strategy in the field and promotes the rights of the family, the child, single people, older people, people with disabilities and any other people in need. In the development of the development strategy in the field, the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity will consult with the main representatives of civil society. (2) Ministry of Health and Family, Ministry of Education and Research, Ministry of Public Administration, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Interior, National Authority for Child Protection, as well as other institutions and bodies government elaborates in their field of political competence and social assistance programs. + Article 35 (1) In order to coordinate the national social assistance system, the Inter-Ministerial Commission on Social Assistance, coordinated by the Minister of Labour and Social Solidarity, shall be established. (2) The Interministerial Commission on social assistance mainly has the following tasks: a) the development of unitary social assistance policy; b) coordination at national level of social assistance activities; c) endorsement of social assistance policies and measures developed by the ministries and institutions referred to in art. 34 34 para. ((2). (3) The composition, organization and other tasks of the Interministerial Commission on social assistance shall be approved by Government decision. + Article 36 The main tasks of the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity in the field of social assistance are: a) coordinate and control the functioning of the national social assistance system; b) develop draft normative acts, methodological norms and regulations regarding the functioning of the social assistance system; c) develop the national plan setting out the priority directions of action in relation to the concrete configuration of existing needs and resources; d) develop quality standards for social services, in collaboration with university and research institutions, with professional organizations, with specialists from the social assistance system and from the health system; e) develop, implement and evaluate national social assistance programmes; f) guide and control the activity of social, public or private assistance institutions, with regard to the application of social assistance measures; g) develop training and improvement programs for staff in the field of social assistance, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Research, the Ministry of Health and Family, professional associations and university institutions; h) organizes the accreditation process, elaborates the accreditation methodology and evaluation criteria of social, public and private assistance institutions, as well as non-governmental organizations working in the field; i) guide and control the activity of associations and foundations in order to respect the social assistance rights of persons in need; j) develop collaborative and cooperation relations with international bodies, conclude collaboration agreements with them for the development of programs with external financing; k) funds national social assistance programmes; l) manage and manage the funds allocated, according to the law, for social assistance. + Article 37 (1) The Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity may constitute advisory bodies to support the development of the strategy in the field, the development of standards, the evaluation of the quality of (2) The Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity can organize in its subordination executive bodies with the function of solving specific social problems or implementing social programs. + Section 2 At territorial level 1. At the level of the departments of work and social solidarity, respectively of the General Directorate of Labour and Social Solidarity of the Municipality of Bucharest + Article 38 (1) The Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity organizes within the departments of labor and social solidarity, respectively within the General Directorate of Labour and Social Solidarity of the Municipality of Bucharest, specialized compartments, hereinafter referred to as public social assistance services. (2) The county employment and social solidarity departments, namely the General Directorate of Labour and Social Solidarity of the Municipality of Bucharest, can organize offices in the localities where the number, the structure of the beneficiaries and the complexity of the activity Territorial level requires it. + Article 39 (1) The county employment and social solidarity departments, respectively the General Directorate of Labour and Social Solidarity of the Municipality of Bucharest, meet in the field of social assistance the following main tasks: a) realize, at local level, the evidence of beneficiaries and amounts spent with social assistance; b) accredits specialized personnel who provide social services at home, in accordance with the legislation in force; c) collect social assistance information and assess the impact of social policies on beneficiaries; d) conduct studies and analyses in the field of social assistance; e) collaborate in the elaboration of the county plan and of the city of Bucharest for the development of local intervention strategies in support of people in need f) controls the application of the legislation in the field and applies sanctions in case of non-compliance; g) control the activity of public and private institutions of social assistance regarding the granting of benefits and social services, as well as non-governmental organizations working in the social field; h) supports and methodologically guides the development and development of programs in the field of social assistance developed locally; i) manage and manage the funds allocated, according to the law, for social assistance; j) develop proposals for the allocation of funds for social assistance and transmit them to the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity. (2) The establishment, under the law, of social assistance rights and their payment, as well as the granting of the facilities regulated by law shall be made by the director of the county department of labor and social solidarity, respectively by the director general of the General Directorate of Labour and Social Solidarity of Bucharest. 2. At the level of the county councils, respectively of the General Council of Bucharest + Article 40 (1) The county councils and the General Council of the Municipality of Bucharest organize, as a public service, a social assistance compartment that ensures at territorial level the application of social assistance policies in the field of child protection, family, single people, elderly people, people with disabilities, as well as any person in need. (2) The framework regulation for the organization and functioning of the public service is approved by Government decision, at the proposal of the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity and the Ministry of Public Administration, within 30 days from the date publication of this law in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I. + Article 41 The county councils and the General Council of Bucharest have, in the field of social assistance, the following main tasks: a) approves the county social assistance plan for the development of local intervention strategies in support of people in need; b) establish measures to prevent situations of marginalization and social exclusion and ensure the human, material and financial means necessary to solve social emergencies at county level and, in the absence of resources, also at local level; c) evaluate the activities carried out by non-governmental organizations within the subsidized programs from the budget of the county council and of the General Council of Bucharest; d) approve the establishment, financing or, as the case may be, co-financing of public social assistance institutions and evaluate their activities; e) collaborate with public social assistance services to implement social assistance strategies; f) conclude partnership agreements with representatives of civil society involved in the development of social assistance programs. 3. At the local councils level + Article 42 (1) The local councils of the municipalities, cities and sectors of Bucharest municipality organize, under the conditions of art. 40 40 para. (2), as a public service, social assistance compartments. (2) The communal local councils will employ persons with social assistance duties in their own apparatus. (3) Local councils of cities and municipalities can organise area social assistance services. (4) Local councils of municipalities, cities, sectors of Bucharest and communes have, in the field of social assistance, the following main tasks: a) ensure the identification of social problems in the field of social assistance and their resolution under the law b) administer and manage the funds allocated for social assistance; c) organize and financially support the system of social assistance services; d) organize social services, depending on local requests; e) ensure the payment of approved subsidies for Romanian associations and foundations with legal personality, which carry out social services programs, under the law; f) develop proposals for the allocation of funds for social assistance and transmit them to the general direction of the county public finances, namely the city of Bucharest; g) approves cooperation programs with non-governmental organizations, cult institutions recognized in Romania and with other representatives of civil society, in accordance with the provisions of the national plan and the county social assistance plan; h) conclude, under the law, conventions in order to ensure social services; i) grants spaces, financial and logistical means to support the realization of social assistance activities; j) provide social housing, under the law; k) funds or, as the case may be, co-finances public social assistance institutions of local interest, as well as social assistance programs; l) communicate monthly to the county labor and social solidarity, respectively to the General Directorate of Labour and Social Solidarity of Bucharest, the number of beneficiaries of social assistance and the amounts spent with this destination. (5) The establishment, under the law, of the rights to social assistance benefits and their payment, as well as the granting of the facilities regulated by the law shall be made by the mayor, by disposition. + Chapter 6 Staff in the social assistance system + Article 43 In the field of social assistance activates staff and volunteers, specialists with various qualifications, who have competences, responsibilities and tasks specific to the field of activity. + Article 44 Social assistance services provided in art. 23 are made by specialist staff of social assistance. + Article 45 (1) The training of specialized social assistance personnel is carried out in higher education institutions, post-secondary education or other forms of education with social assistance profile, in compliance with the provisions of the legislation in force. (2) The specialized personnel of social assistance has the obligation to perform the duties and responsibilities provided in the statute of the profession, approved by law, at the proposal of professional associations, established according to the law and accredited by Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity. + Article 46 Young people who have opted for alternative utility service can participate, after adequate training, in the provision of social-medical care services. + Article 47 Staff and volunteers working in the field of social assistance are required to: a) ensure the confidentiality of information obtained through the exercise of the profession b) respect the privacy of the person, as well as his freedom to decide; c) to respect professional ethics. + Article 48 Non-compliance with the obligations provided 47 attracts, under the law, material, disciplinary, civil or criminal liability, as the case may be. + Article 49 Social assistance institutions have the obligation to provide the personnel structure established by the norms approved by Government decision. + Article 50 (1) In the statute provided for in art. 45 45 para. (2) it is mandatory to set up the discipline commission within each professional association, establishing the regulation of its organization and functioning. (2) By the decisions of the discipline commission, the deviations from the ethics and professional deontology committed in the exercise of the profession by the staff provided in art. 45. (3) The decisions of the discipline committee may be appealed to the court within 30 days from the date of communication. + Article 51 In the field of social assistance, persons who have been definitively convicted of committing a crime likely to make them incompatible with the exercise of this profession cannot exercise their profession. + Article 52 The activities of the evaluation of social assistance programs are carried out by the territorial public services, in which they can also appeal to independent experts. + Chapter 7 Social assistance financing + Article 53 (1) Social assistance is financed from local budgets and the state budget. (2) The financing of social assistance shall be used and amounts from extra-budgetary funds, from donations, sponsorships or other contributions from natural or legal persons, from the country and abroad, from the contribution paid by beneficiaries of social services, as well as from other sources, in compliance with the legislation in the field. + Article 54 How to finance social assistance, according to the provisions of art. 53, is established by the special laws governing the granting of benefits and social services. + Article 55 (1) Public social assistance institutions may organise self-funded activities. (2) The incomes obtained from the activities provided in par. ((1) shall be used to cover the expenditure of those activities and to improve the services provided by the public social assistance institution. + Article 56 ((1) The contributions of the beneficiary persons of social services shall be borne by their monthly own incomes or, as the case may be, by the participation of other persons obliged to maintenance, according to the methodological norms approved by decision of the Government. (2) The contributions provided in par. (1) may not exceed the level of the average monthly cost approved by order of the Minister of Labour and Social Solidarity, by types of institutions. + Article 57 The county councils, the General Council of Bucharest, as well as the local councils can contract, under the law, social services with the providers of such services. + Article 58 Social assistance institutions are exempt from taxes and fees on land and buildings used for social work activities. + Article 59 The availability of the budget institutions at the end of the year, derived from extra-budgetary activities, shall be carried over to the same destination in the following year. + Chapter 8 Social assistance jurisdiction + Article 60 The application for the granting of social assistance rights shall be registered with the mayor of the administrative-territorial unit in whose territorial area the person lives, and within 30 days from the date of registration of the application to be issued the mayor's disposition and to communicate to the + Article 61 The mayor's disposition can be appealed according Law of Administrative Litigation no. 29/1990 . + Article 62 Applications to the courts for the settlement of disputes in relation to social assistance rights are exempt from stamp duty. + Chapter 9 Social mediation committee + Article 63 (1) In each county and sector of Bucharest, a social mediation commission is established, with an advisory role. (2) The Social Mediation Commission shall clarify by dialogue the divergent points between applicants, beneficiaries of social assistance rights and representatives of institutions granting these rights. (3) The organization and functioning of the social mediation commissions shall be approved by Government decision, at the proposal of the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity and the Ministry of Public Administration. + Chapter 10 Transitional and final provisions + Article 64 At the request of interested persons territorial social assistance services, the specialized compartments of the county councils and the General Council of the Municipality of Bucharest, as well as of the local councils grant free expert advice in the field of social assistance. + Article 65 County and local councils, non-governmental organizations and other legal entities that carry out social assistance programs have the obligation to communicate monthly to public social assistance services data and information regarding activity in this area. + Article 66 The National Institute of Statistics, in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity, organizes and ensures the processing of social assistance data, in order to substantiate strategies, and publishes annually the assistance indicators social in the Statistical Yearbook of Romania. + Article 67 (. This Law shall enter into force on 1 January 2002. (2) The social assistance measures covered by this law will be applied to the data provided by the special laws. This law was adopted by the Senate at the meeting of October 29, 2001, in compliance with the provisions of art 74 74 para. (1) of the Romanian Constitution. p. SENATE PRESIDENT, DORU IOAN TARACILA This law was adopted by the Chamber of Deputies at the meeting of November 5, 2001, in compliance with the provisions of 74 74 para. (1) of the Romanian Constitution. CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES PRESIDENT VALER DORNEANU ---------------