“I did thousands of investigations in Ferentari and Giurgiului. I did not find any fraud.” The story of a former social inspector

“I worked in the system of protection of people with disabilities 25 years ago, when Romania was the wild east and should have been full of fraud and thieves in the system, as Caramitru JR says that today.writes Mirel Axinte, former social inspector on his Facebook page.

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He recounts that his work area covered areas such as Ferentari, where the Calea Ferentari ended and began to extend Ferentari, with houses and ghettos, but also the extension of Ghencea, then still full of scratches “in corn”, administratively in sector 5..

Tolerated “fraud”: relatives or neighbors instead of assistants

Most of the investigations, however, took place in Ferentari itself, between Ferentari Square and Progresu Station, as well as between Giurgiului Road and Sălaj Road. Here he enters each house and block, from the streets such as Iacob Andrei, Livezilor, Baciului, Imașului, Tunsu Petre, Anghel Dogaru or Stogu. There were areas with ghetou blocks, but not all of low comfort: some homes were decent and sheltered including military personnel – colon or maiori. In addition, he went frequently to Zărăuţi, an area that his colleagues avoided.

“In those years I had also heard of disability certificates for healthy people, but in parliamentarians or, in the good world, not in Ferentari. They did not take them for money, because the money was very little then, as now, they took them for other facilities (car import without customs, I was not taxed, Or deputies (were September 13, in the “blocks of senators”, so I said).he is knowing it.

According to his statements, the only “fraud” encountered and tolerated was related to the situation of personal assistants. People with serious disabilities, who needed permanent care, had the right to an assistant employed with a contract and workbook. The European rules then undermined provided that this role was occupied by a social assistance specialist, but, at the minimum wage on the economy, it was impossible to find someone willing to do such a psychic and demanding work. In reality, those who offered care were usually family members.

“Fraud” appeared when they could not be officially employed. For example, a mother herself in an invalidity pension or a person who did not meet certain legal conditions. In such cases, on paper was another relative or a neighbor, who benefited from age and social contributions, but the salary also reached the one who actually cared for the disabled. Axinte states that this form of arrangement was tacitly accepted by bosses, because it reflected the reality on the ground. Other times, families officially figured out at an address different from the one in which they lived, and the social investigation was made at the address, so as not to lose the legal rights.

Social aid, between humility and marginalization

“In the rest, I saw thousands of cases that are hard to describe, I saw people who hid their TV not to help them (they had understood, that if they have a television, the state of the disability help – they were not absurd, they were inspectors to social assistance, a stupid one, Bogdan, Well, you have water? To them: shut up, you only say you say ”, Mirel Axinte continues.

In the opinion of the former social inspector, the real problem is not just about Romania. Vulnerable people do not expect aid with satisfaction, but live with the feeling of uselessness and marginalization. “It is a phenomenon in the USA (the result: Trump) and in the UK (the result: Brexit) of post-industrial social media that have lost their jobs, lifestyle and meaning”, Axinte wrote.

He points out that passive aid can only be a short -term solution, but the real solution is integration into society. “This was, in fact, the EU policy: deinstitutionalization, integration in society. In Romania it is impossible and now, demolished 25 years ago. They were lepers then, lepers are today”, he says.

Multiple discrimination

As an example, describes multiple discrimination experienced by Roma with disabilities: “Such as: blind rum or paraplegic rum? From the beginning it is forbidden to cross the barrier if it is Roma.“

According to his reports, some of the most powerful memories come from the Images neighborhood. He met a family in which the disabled person was the younger brother, and the eldest, of a close age with him, was trying without success to engage. “At that time it was with free Romania, they called, they called him, they saw him in the face: he was in charge, he is no longer valid, we discuss. He was a very calm and quiet guy, but he looked as he looked like the skin”, nOtea Axinte, explaining how discrimination made it impossible to access a job.

About fraud, the only situations were formal. He remembers a case, also from Imașului, where the mother, with a serious disability, managed to hold her house alone, although she could only use her hands. The daughter, only seven to eight years old, was going impeccably taken care of at school, while officially appeared another personal, fictitious assistant.

In Giurgiului, he says he met a family of blind parents and a nine-year-old girl, “very defrosted”, who practically held the household instead of adults. “I do not know who was an official personal assistant, but that little man was the good man at all in the house.”writes Axinte.

Phones, dogs and myths

According to his statements, some cases in the field remained unforgettable. In the goddesses, he met a family who had sold everything he had to try to raise treatment for a 9-10 -year -old girl, diagnosed with a serious lung disease, with minimal chances of survival without a transplant. “The father said to me:” Look, what to do, we look at it as it dies “, notes Axinte. Years later, he would find out from a colleague that the little girl had died. “How to go to those with a jaw in heaven and one in the ground to take them to refect that they want to deceive the state?”, he asks.

Otherwise, says the former inspector, did not meet anything “terrible” which has ruined the state or society. “Apart from drugs (and the police in Filat in Dacii 1310, which I knew from the outside) and a beating between the stairs, I saw nothing terrible to ruin the state and society.”

He also tells a scene from Zărăuți, where a young man had a pile of mobile phones, luxury objects for that time. “At the departure, he tells me:” I come with you, to know that you are from the town hall, not to steal your phone? “,” Remember axinte, adding ironically: “But let's be serious, not the theft of mobile phones destroyed the economy and increased the deficit. ”

On the field, it also had survival strategies. In front of the dogs of dogs, he went straight to them: “You could see them a cock, you were going directly to them. Otherwise, they were growing”, And in an investigation in Ghencea he admits that he escaped only because of the host's appearance, after the whole pack had begun to bark at him.

As for the “neighborhood boys”, the experience had taught him that the direct approach was the key. “At the boys with tattoos and cuts on the face and hands you go directly and ask everything, an address, something.”

In conclusion, Axinte contradicts myths related to violence in Ferentari. “In Ferentari, violence exists only in myths. Apart from that beat between two stairs I have not encountered violence on the street. (…) Romania is one of the safest countries in the world-not in the house, with the family, if you are a woman or a child.”

“It is embarrassing that in 2025 the children of money ready to be hysterized against the poor and the disabled that they steal the state and their work to shoot them. concludes Mirel Axinte.

A Romania of the gaps

Today, Romania remains the country of inequalities. Over 45% of the residents of the village are at risk of poverty, and one in five children falls asleep, a study of the World Vision shows. For example, in Râmnicelu commune in Buzău, 20% of people depend on the minimum help of inclusion. Even so, the discussion about social aid in the public space, considers the specialists consulted by Adevărul, remain far from the realities in the field.

“The discussion about social aids in Romania is often reduced to clichés about fraud or dependence. The reality of the land shows us something else: Romania is a state of inequalities, where, although between 2015 and 2020 the poverty rate has reduced from 27.8% to 10.7%, 75% of the people in poverty live in the rural area (World Bank) The risk of poverty remains among the highest in the EU, at 22.6% in 2020. More serious, almost half of the people in the last 40% of the income distribution do not work, and another 28% live from subsistence agriculture ”, Explain, recently, for Adevărul, Cristina Bîcîilă, general director of the Association without borders (AFF).

According to him, social aid is not a prize for laziness, but a minimum safety net.

On the other hand, the economist Andrei Caramitru recently warned, on his Facebook page, that “empathetic” social aids produce adverse effects: work people who prefer financial support instead of employment, black work so as not to lose the benefits, fraud networks around higher benefits and wrong stimuli related to children. “Many who could work will prefer not to work and receive aid (especially if they have small extra stuff: money from the cousin in Italy, chickens in the yard, etc.),” ​​writes Caramitru. He adds that “that's why I am on the principle of zero aid. You have to be responsible. The help yes, the help of finding work. And if you are hungry you accept any job in any salary if you do not go your head, but you receive help to learn the job. Why do others who work have to give you money to do nothing? Complete Andrei Caramitru.

Recently, the Minister of Labor, Florin Manole, stated that Romania “It doesn't have too many social workers” And that the minimum revenues – between 346 and 879 lei per month – “I do not allow a living without work.” He recognizes the existence of frauds, but insists that the problem is not the number of beneficiaries, but the lack of controls and incomplete criteria. “Unemployment help is not a apple, it is a legitimate and necessary social protection”Hilele emphasized.