Information openness of the social welfare system in Russia and Great Britain

The article presents the results of the analysis of official documents that contains some guarantees for citizens' access to Internet information related to Russian social welfare and social services. The practical implementation of these safeguards by authorities at the federal level and in several regions of Russia is shown. The author identified problems associated with the failure of requirements of the legislation of Russian Federation and with the inefficiency of the activity of bodies and institutions of social welfare. Critical assessment is given to the functioning of website of the Russian Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, its content doesn’t fully meet the information needs of the population. The author focused attention on the lack of Federal Governmental Portal of Social Welfare, devoted to the themes of culture, education and health care in Russia. The author also described the causes and negative social consequences of this information lack for society. The author also described some guarantees for citizens' access to information about statutory social work in the Internet in the UK, not available in Russia at the moment, such as the access to the public registers of social workers and charities were.