Strengthening the selectivity of social policy and poverty reduction prospects

The article presents the results of research on the theoretical and methodological approaches to definition and measurement of poverty rate, as well as the methods of implementing one of the social policy models with a view to reducing it. The relevance of the issues raised in the article is related to the existing in modern Russian society risks of poverty for certain socio-demographic groups of the population. On the basis of Russian and foreign data the authors come to a conclusion that the selective model of social policy is connected with a large amount of administrative, and therefore financial costs. Conducting needs estimation and subsequent monitoring of social assistance recipients requires large government expenditures. The possibility of fraud by potential consumers of social assistance entails the need to conduct special procedures to verify the incomes of such citizens. This calls into question the efficiency of strengthening the selective social policy in Russia, that is different from the universal social policy in developed countries assuming that any person, regardless of his belonging to the economically active population, has the right to a minimum protection against diseases, old age or any other cause of reduction of his material resources. In addition, the principle of means testing can lead to errors of exclusion of those who really need to be recognized as poor and receive social assistance. Thus, the choice of a methodological approach to measuring poverty depends on the direction and model of social policy in the country, which affects the state of society and the prospects for its further development.