Ministry of Welfare of the Republic of Latvia

The mission of the Ministry of Welfare is to stabilize the condition of a person in the situations of social risk, to reduce the possibility that the social risk would occur by facilitating honest legal labour relationships, healthy and safe work conditions, gender equality thus creating the opportunities to everybody to secure a sufficient life quality themselves in any given situation. The work of the Ministry of Welfare is focused in 4 directions:(1) Compensation for the lost income and additional expenses in the case of a social risk. The main tasks are the following: To ensure an income replacement in the case of retirement, disability, maternity, illness or unemployment; To secure the functionality and development of the state social insurance system. (2) Financial support to the specific groups of population. The main task is:To improve the financial situation of the families with children, of disabled persons, of elderly people, of children without supporters, of the liquidators of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident. (3) Measures to secure and implement the social rights. The main tasks are as follows: To increase the competitive capacity and quality of the labour force, to reduce unemployment; To ensure the protection of the employees' rights to a legal, safe and harmless work environment and to reduce the illegal employment; To ensure that the social services and social assistance are professional and of a high quality. (4) Planning and supervision of the implementation of the policy in the welfare field. The main task is: To plan and implement effective and result-oriented policies in the areas of the competence of the Ministry.