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Authorities to tighten eligibility criteria for targeted social aid

The government plans to tighten eligibility criteria for targeted social aid, Alyaksandr Rumak, deputy minister of labor and social security, told reporters in Minsk on Thursday.

As many as 233,000 people received targeted aid from the government in the first nine months of 2012. The payouts totaled 304 billion rubels, more than five times as much as in the same period of the previous year.

"Unfortunately, certain recipients of state targeted social aid display dependency; after finding themselves in a difficult situation, they receive state aid and get used to it, don't seek to solve their problems independently," Mr. Rumak said.

He said that the criteria would be tightened in a bid to encourage recipients to make more efforts to improve their finances independently.

"If a person has turned down several job offers that would help him earn a living, it will not be completely fair to continue providing state aid to him," the deputy minister said. //BelaPAN