Social and Legal Circumscribtion of Poverty

The undergoing economic and social transformation makes topical the traditional issue of poverty. The circumscribtion of poverty involves both social and legal dimensions, which may not be omitted. The former includes especially the percep­tion of poverty in the society, its social definition and location, including the social consensus over the measures necessary to ensure the minimum acceptable economic standard in the form of the minimum income on the level of minimum living costs, forming the poverty line. Legal guarantee of such a minimum income became a legal claim in all modern welfare states, being a part of the welfare citizenship provided to every citizen. The legally based concept of minimum living costs, as a socially recognized level of minimum income, together with the regulation of the social security dependency, within which comes every citizen not receiving such a minimum income, forms the basis of the undergoing transformation of the social secury system. Its fundamental institutes will be social insurance, state social support and social assistance. An express legal regulation of minimum living costs and the relation of most of the allowance provided to an income lower than a fixed multiplication of the minimum living costs will ensure a problem and target orientated character of social policy in solving the problem of poverty.