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Granted social vouchers

Emergency Ordinance no. 63 on some temporary measures for granting material support to categories of persons at risk of material deprivation and/or extreme poverty, partially supported by non-reimbursable external funds, as well as some measures for its distribution was published in the Official Gazette (Part I) no. 468 of 10 May 2022.

Thus, the normative act regulates the granting of electronic social vouchers, with a nominal value of 250 lei, for certain categories of persons.

The document aims to establish temporary measures, from 1 June to 31 December 2022, for the material support of certain categories of vulnerable population.

The material support, granted once every two months, will compensate part of the categories of expenditure on food for daily living, by granting social vouchers in electronic form for the purchase of basic food products and/or for the provision of hot meals.

            According to the new provisions (Article 3), the following categories of persons and families, hereinafter referred to as beneficiaries, benefit from material support in the form of social vouchers issued electronically:

  1. a) pensioners of the public pension system, pensioners registered with the sectoral pension houses and beneficiaries of rights granted on the basis of special laws, paid by the territorial pension houses / sectoral pension houses, whose net monthly income is less than or equal to 1,500 lei;
  2. b) persons – children and adults -, classified as severely, severely or moderately disabled, whose own net monthly income is less than or equal to 1,500 lei;
  3. c) families with at least 2 dependent children whose net monthly income per family member is less than or equal to 600 lei;
  4. d) single-parent families whose net monthly income per family member is less than or equal to 600 lei;
  5. e) families who have established the right to social assistance under Law no.416/2001, as amended and supplemented;
  6. f) homeless people as they are regulated according to the legal provisions in force.

The above amounts do not include child allowances, family support allowances, foster care allowances, heating allowances, allowances for the disabled, various other social allowances, the integration incentive and child-raising allowances, as well as any other social amounts granted by the state to certain categories of persons.

Persons who fall into more than one of the above categories are entitled to the support for only one of the categories to which they belong at the time the support is granted.

Persons who at the date of granting the support are not domiciled in Romania or who do not prove that they live in Romania, according to the law, as well as persons serving custodial sentences or benefiting from social services in residential, public or private.

 

For the purposes of Article 4 of EMERGENCY ORDINANCE 63/2022, income, in the case of persons referred to in Article 3 letters (a)-(d) above, means:

 

  1. a) income from pensions granted in the public pension system;
  2. b) income from pensions granted in schemes not integrated into the public pension system;
  3. c) income from entitlements under special laws paid by territorial pension funds and sectoral pension funds;
  4. d) income from the social allowance for pensioners granted on the basis of the EMERGENCY ORDINANCE no.6/2009 on the establishment of the social allowance for pensioners, approved by Law no.196/2009, with subsequent amendments and additions;
  5. e) income from wages and salaries, defined according to Article 76 of Law no. 227/2015 on the Fiscal Code, as amended and supplemented;
  6. f) accommodation allowance granted under Law no.273/2004 on adoption procedure, republished, as amended and supplemented;
  7. g) the allowance for the care of a disabled child aged between 3 and 7 years, granted under the EMERGENCY ORDINANCE no.111/2010 on leave and monthly allowance for raising children, approved with amendments by Law no.132/2011, as amended and supplemented;
  8. h) the non-taxable income provided for in Article 62(b), c), n), q) and r) of Law no.227/2015, as amended and supplemented;
  9. i) income from the transfer of the use of goods, defined according to Article 83 of Law no.227/2015, as amended and supplemented;
  10. j) income from investments, as defined in Article 91 of Law no. 227/2015, as amended and supplemented;
  11. k) income from agricultural, forestry and fish farming activities, as defined in Article 103 of Law No. 227/2015, as amended and supplemented;
  12. l) income from the transfer of immovable property, as defined in Article 111 of Law No 227/2015, as amended and supplemented;
  13. m) income from other sources, as defined in Articles 114 and 117 of Law No. 227/2015, as amended and supplemented.

Important!

The income referred to in letters a) to h) shall be, as the case may be, the income of the month preceding the month in which the support is paid or for which the payment of taxes and contributions referred to in Law no.227/2015, as amended and supplemented, has been made in the month preceding the month in which the support is paid.

The income referred to in letters (i) to (m) shall be that earned in 2021.

 

Nominal amount of material support:

The material support granted on the basis of the electronic social voucher has a nominal value of 250 lei and is granted once every two months to the categories of beneficiaries mentioned above.

The amounts granted can be used within 12 months from the date of each maintenance.

The electronic social voucher is assimilated to the value tickets and is issued by the issuing units defined in article 5 of Law no.165/2018 on the granting of value tickets, with subsequent amendments and additions, according to the legal provisions in force.

Please note that the electronic social vouchers for food and hot meals issued do not allow cash withdrawal or cash redemption operations.

Another important aspect is that electronic social vouchers for food and hot meals can only be used in Romania, within the validity period and only for the purchase of food and hot meals for which they were issued.

It is forbidden for the affiliated units to grant a change of money to the electronic social vouchers for food and hot meals.

Social vouchers for food and hot meals are replenished every two months with 250 lei.

The electronic social vouchers for food and hot meals can only be used at affiliated units that have concluded with the issuing unit selected by the Ministry of Investment and European Projects service contracts/protocols/conventions/agreements or any other document regulating the rights and obligations of the parties.

Legal basis:

– EMERGENCY ORDINANCE 63/2022 on some temporary measures for providing material support to categories of persons at risk of material deprivation and / or risk of extreme poverty, partially supported by non-reimbursable external funds, as well as some measures for its distribution ;

– EMERGENCY ORDINANCE 28/1999 on the obligation of economic operators to use electronic fiscal cash registers *) – republished, with subsequent amendments and completions.