Speaking at today’s enlarged meeting of the Cabinet, President Viktor Yanukovych outlined four strategic priority areas of social reforms to be implemented in the state, according to the Press office of President Viktor Yanukovych.
First of all, he said, the state should restore public confidence in government policies aimed at improving people`s lives. "We need to restore the basic principle of social justice, by cutting benefits for those who do not need them to the maximum. The efficiency of social policy should be improved", Viktor Yanukovych said.
The second priority according to the President is to modify the approaches to salaries, taxes, and social insurance. "We need to introduce mechanisms of redistribution of earnings from economic activity, which would prevent further social and economic polarization of the society by raising the incomes of working people and wellbeing of socially vulnerable groups," he said. A way to achieve this he called the introduction of wealth tax.
The third priority according to Viktor Yanukovych is a deep modernization of social security. "We need to pass from non-systematic payments to targeted assistance and social services that meet the needs of a person and a family," said Viktor Yanukovych.
The fourth important area of social reform Viktor Yanukovych called promoting effective employment and creating new jobs for citizens.
According to Viktor Yanukovych, able-bodied people should have the opportunity to cover the needs of theirs and their families without turning to the state for help. The President also stressed the need to promote active involvement of people with disabilities in social life by ensuring that they have proper working conditions, access to public education, culture, commerce, etc.
New social initiatives and gradual introduction of a new social policy should be aimed at the correction of mechanisms of income redistribution, overcoming the deep property gap, promoting middle class development, creating effective system of protection against social risks, he said.
