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Cyprus Social Welfare
Social welfare policy was introduced for the first time
in
Cyprus in 1946, when legislation was enacted to regulate
the
supervision of juvenile offenders, the aftercare of reform
school
boys, and the protection of deprived children. After
independence
social welfare became the responsibility of the Department
of
Social Welfare Services under the Ministry of Labor and
Social
Insurance. The government committed itself to an active
role in
social policy when it stated in 1967 that "it recognizes
that
health, education and other social considerations affect
and are
interdependent with a vast complex of variables which
determine
both the social and economic welfare of the island."
By the 1970s, social welfare had evolved into a body of
activities designed to enable individuals, family groups,
and
communities to cope with social problems. In the late
1980s, the
state provided five main categories of services:
delinquency and
social defense; child and family welfare; community work
and youth
services; social services to other departments; and public
assistance.
Delinquency and social defense services were concerned
with
juvenile and adult offenders. They included pretrial
reports on
juveniles, supervision of persons placed on probation,
follow-up
care for those leaving detention centers (obligatory for
juveniles,
voluntary for adults), and supervision of juveniles
involved in
antisocial behavior when requested by parents or school
authorities.
The primary recipients of child and family welfare were
children removed from families where conditions could no
longer be
remedied. Also served were children needing protection,
but
remaining with their families, and children threatened by
such
problems as chronic illness, marriage breakdown, and
homelessness.
In these cases, the department could supervise fostering
arrangements and adoptions. Service of this kind also
involved
inspecting and licensing homes for children, day
nurseries, and
childcare personnel. In 1986 there were 207 day- care
centers, 164
of them privately run; state and local governments
operated the
rest. Children placed in the state's care lived in the
department's
four children's homes; delinquent youth (aged thirteen to
eighteen)
lived in four youth hostels. There was also a home for
retarded
children, one section of which was reserved for retarded
adults.
Community work and youth services involved the
department in
providing expert advice, and occasionally financial
assistance, to
voluntary community and youth organizations. Especially
after 1974,
the department provided much support for youth centers,
where
recreational facilities were available for working young
people. In
the late 1980s, there were ninety-eight of these youth
centers,
eighty-three of which were run by local governments.
Social services to other departments included long-term
care
for persons released from psychiatric institutions and, on
occasion, for former medical patients; prison welfare
measures; and
assistance for students having difficulty adjusting to
school.
Public assistance was first instituted in 1952 to
reduce
poverty by offering economic assistance to very poor
families, the
aged, and the disabled. This service was greatly expanded
in 1973,
when every Cypriot citizen was made eligible for financial
assistance "for the maintenance of a minimum standard of
living,
and the satisfaction of his basic needs," and promised
social
services for solving "his personal problems and the
improvement of
his living conditions." The ultimate objective of these
services
was to make their recipients socially and economically
selfsufficient . By the time of the Turkish invasion in 1974,
public
assistance expenditures were minimal, given full
employment and
comparatively high living standards. The years immediately
after
the invasion saw a swelling of public assistance services.
By 1987,
when the economy was fully restored, there were only 5,087
recipients of public assistance, half of whom were aged or
disabled.
Data as of January 1991
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