Social risk in social assistance (from poverty risk to life’s risk)

Abstract

In the study the author considers three problems. The first problem concerns the question whether the risk of social assistance can be considered as a type of social risk in terms of the legal sciences. The answer is yes, although this risk has a special nature and is determined by other social risk factors than social insurance risk. The author illustrates this thesis by presenting the shape of this risk in social devices, that precede the modern devices of social assistance in Poland. The second problem concerns the place of social risk of social assistance in the social security system (risks of this system). The author argues with the thesis about the subsidiary role of social assistance in the social security system in the sense that social assistance is only intended to supplement the deficiencies (gaps) of social insurance and that social insurance, if optimally shaped, could completely deprive social assistance its meaning. In the third part of the study, the author indicates some factors affecting the dynamics and directions of the development of social assistance, which in turn also affects the shape of the risk of social assistance. The author also points out that burdening social assistance with tasks related to supplementing the social security system with comprehensive regulations regarding e.g. family support (as was the case with Poland at the beginning of the 21st century), including
organizational solutions until the reconstruction of the current system, is not promising.