Magyar Hírek, 1986 (39. évfolyam, 1-26. szám)
1986-05-23 / 10. szám
PAST SIXTY An interview with Zsuzsa Ferge, the sociologist According to 1869 census in Hungary 5,1 per cent of the population was more than sixty years old. Their ratio increased to 7,6 per cent by the year 1900, reached 15,5 per cent in 1965 and as much as 18 per cent by 1985. This means that at the start of the last year about one million nine hundred and twenty-two thousand people sixty and over lived in Hungary. The oldest group, that of the over eighty years old people numbered no more than ten thousand in 1869, but reached 237,000 by the 1st of January 1985. Hungarians are rapidly aging. What is Hungarian social policy doing for the aged ? I discussed these questions with Zsuzsa Ferge, a sociologist Head of a Department at the Institute of Sociology of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. * “Before discussing the situation of the aged we should clarify some important questions in relation to Hungarian social policy. This is the more timely because our Inst itute conducted an extensive inquiry—commissioned by the Council of Ministers — between 1981 and 1985, the objective of which was to explore the past, present and future of Hungarian social policy. The project included a survey of twenty different institutional systems of social policy, and a total of about one hundred studies. The summing up taught us much.” “ IVhal is of importance in this respect?” “First of all the finding that Hungarian social policy underwent a great change during the past quarter of a century. Unfortunately, in spite of progress, we still cannot consider ourselves to be doing particularly well, in some of the developed countries as much as 35-40 per cent of national income is spent on social policy objectives but there are numerous countries also, where such expenditure barely exceeds ten per cent. Spending 25 per cent of national income annually — which agrees to the country’s economic development standard — puts Hungary in the middle of the field. This is not enough to cope with our objectives.” “Besides the finattcial resources what kind of other factors influence the quality of social services?” “The principles are decisive. In the Hungarian system a number of different conceptual systems are present. Pre-war charitable, matemalistic thinking and the voluntarist approach of the fifties both influence Hungarian practice. Another conceptual system, which is not a product of the social policy, but seeped through from the economy, is also present in practice. It stands to reason that able-bodied people capable of productive labour, or who can be relatively easily made capable of it, are valuable for the economy. Those, who will never be able to work either because they are ill, invalid, or because they are past their productive years are burdens. This kind of attitude should never be allowed to be felt.” “How did your research programme approach the sit tuition and problems of the aged?” “We examined that sphere of problems from a number of aspects. Pensions, which could be regarded reasonable considering the resources of Hungary affect the majority of the elderly. The largest slice of social policy budget is spent on pensions. People become eligible for pensions in a relatively short time, therefore the overwhelming majority of the population past retiring age (men past 60, women past 55), that is about 85 per cent of them, receive a pension under some kind of entitlement. But the pension system has faults also. The first and most serious of these is that pensions have not kept their value compared to prices or to wages. There are huge differences between the pensions of people retired ten or twenty years ago, and of the recently retired even ifthey worked in similar situations before retirement. A further fault is — which is primarily due to the economic circumstances — that almost half of the pensions are very low, hardly enough make ends meet.” ‘‘What is your opinion on social services for the elderly?” “The problems in this field are serious. The objective of these services should be to cover those needs of elderly people for which their pensions are inadequate, needs due to being left alone, which is frequent in old age, or to being left alone, which is frequent in old age, or to illness and the necessity of nursing. In the early fifties the government of the day believed that no-one would need stich help in the new social system, therefore the institutional system that provided such social services was discontinued. New institutions were established only in the late sixties but their networks and operations are still inadequate. It may happen, unfortunately, that some of the elderly are left without adequate care, or, when they have a family, the burden of their nursing is left to the relatives.” “Some elderly people live in homes for the aged where they get full board and nursing as well. What do you think about these institutions?” “If they find no other solution elderly people living alone may have to resort to a home for the aged. The serious fault of these institutions is that they operate in complete isolation, and that they are too big. Some of them accommodates several hundreds. They are not homes in the proper sense. I would consider smaller institutions a happier solution. Naturally, the best solution would be if the aged would not be torn away from their own home but would cared for in their own environment. Relatives, neighbours, and all sorts of volunteer helpers could — and indeed do — take a great role in the social care of the elderly in their own home. But it became also obvious, that even more social and communal help will be needed in this respect, than before. To put it concisely more hard cash is needed that is a state-financed network of social workers operating in a decentralized organization, many well-trained and wellpaid nurses.” “Opinions on whether caring for the elderly is the duty of the family or of society are divided. What is your opinion?” “ People who emphasise only the responsibility of the family forget the fundamental changes that occurred in the structure of the family in recent decades. Apart from the fact that the majority of women are engaged in outside employment, we must consider other factors too. For instance, that the life span has become longer, thus there are more old people, who need some sort of caring. Besides that, people have fewer children, and many families live at great distances from each other, or even abroad. These are social and economical facts, and the solution cannot be to force women to stay at home. Naturally, when someone devoted his or her life to the caring of aged parents it is a different question. Most likely these people do this because they believe that is their duty, and we would have to find the ways by which such sacrifices could be rewarded financially, jterhai» by paying some kind of an allowance, something like the child care allowance. Considering all things, it is my conviction that a greater burden that the present one should not be put on the family even if the need for caring for the aged is growing inevitably, due to the comjxisition of society. On the contrary. We should ease the burden of families. We must give them a lot more help than before.” “Surely, some recommendation were made, when the f indings were summed a.-« 55up. “I cannot say that concrete models would have taken shape in our minds for the solution of the problems of the aged in the course of the inquiry. Nevertheless, I personally think it would be important that more independent social organizations should be created to serve the interests of the aged. The organizations I have in mind would be such where the elderly and the not so old could carry on working for a common objective. Thus the elderly could be taken back i nto the whole of society. ÉVA ÁROKSZÁLLÁSI CHRONICLE Dr Lajos Faluvégi, the Deputy Prime Minister, granted an interview to Magyar Nemzet, a Budapest daily. Discussing the style of economic planning in Hungary he stated that the Seventh Five-Year Plan, which started on the 1st of January 1986, was more open and flexible than anything that went before. He explained that three variations were worked out to allow a number of ways of considering and weighing up the situation and the objectives at discussions by economists and members of public in the course of which the plan was given its final form. The wide-ranging discussion facilitated adjustment to the changing situations, and adjustments to the economic policy as needed. The central decisions outlined concrete objectives for the early years, and directions for the later ones. Upper and lower limits weregiveninanumberoffields — mainly in respect of investments — in order to make development dependent on performance. The open nature of the plan is manifest also in the fact that the scope of the planning activities of enterprises and councils increased and the sphere of independent decisions was further extended. “Modernity and renewal receive great emphasis in the whole of our economic policy” — said Lajos Faluvégi — “to ensure steady expansion . . . The major portion of the 14 to 17 per cent planned growth in national income over the whole of the planning period will have to be produced relying on greater efficiency.” The State Insurance Company is to be split into two. The State Insurance Company has enjoyed a monopoly in the insurance field. A financial structure composed of competing organizations to give the opportunity of choice to customers is now necessary to ensure the success of the economic reform. The realisat ion of pluralism began some time ago in the banking system. Now the government decided that as from the 1st of July two insurance companies will be active. One will be the present State Insurance Company, and the other the Hungária Insurance Company, which will be active in all the fields of the insurance business. Every insurance business will be open to both Companies, except the insurance of export loans, which will be the exclusive domain of Hungária. The government decision kept open the jxissibility of the establishment of further insurance companies. Hungarian —Swiss conference of historians Hungarian and Swiss historians met for the first time ever to discuss mattéra of mutual interest. The threeday conference was held at the headquarters of the Pécs Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Discussion was centred on four subjects: The role of small states in historic development; The concept of Central Europe; The modernisation of economic and social life; Matters of literary and artistic relevance. According to Professor György Ránki, Head of the Institute of History of the Academy, the conference was part of a quarter of a century old dialogue going on between Hungarian historians and those of various other European countries. 31
