Serbia Social Card excludes thousands of welfare beneficiaries
Serbia Social Card excludes thousands of welfare beneficiaries
Occurred: November 2022
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A Serbia government system meant to automate the allocation of welfare payments and detect fraud resulted in thousands of beneficiaries not receiving their payments.
Approved by the country's parliament in March 2022 and developed by local IT company Saga, Serbia's socijalna karta (Social Card) system uses approximately 130 types of data collected from the Tax Administration, Ministry of Interior, and other government agencies to process individual payments in a fully automated manner.
A group of human rights organisations, including Amnesty, submitted a legal opinion that accused the Serbian government of creating an 'invasive digital surveillance system that threatens the right to equality' by excluding the Roma and the disabled from the system, thereby increasing disparities against them.
Serbia's government refused to provide access to the system's algorithm or data.
Socijalna karta
Government of the Republic of Serbia (2022). Government passes Social Card Bill
A11 Initiative (2022). (Anti)Social Cards
A11 Initiative (2022). Legal Opinion on International and Comparative Human Rights Law Concerning the Matter of the Social Card Law Pending before the Constitutional Court of Serbia
Amnesty (2022). Serbia: Social Card law could harm marginalized members of society – legal opinion
ESCR-Net (2022). Serbia joins the group of countries where discriminatory government-driven algorithms are challenged in court
EDRi (2022). Legal challenge: The Serbian government attempts to digitise social security system
https://www.context.news/digital-rights/as-serbia-adopts-digital-welfare-system-the-poorest-miss-out
https://voxeurop.eu/en/serbia-ai-algorithmic-discrimination/
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/welfare-fraud-industry
https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/srbija-socijalne-karte-algoritam/32153869.html
Page info
Type: Incident
Published: October 2023
Last updated: November 2023