Özet:

Elderly welfare indicates the level of individuals to have an active, healthy and self-sufficient old age period. However, the fact that elderly welfare is a multidimensional concept makes it difficult to measure. The Global Agewatch Index (GAI) contains important indicators related to the welfare of the elderly. These indicators are income security, health status, capability, and the enabling environment factors that older people say are necessary for them to be able to function independently. Poverty is one of the most important factors that negatively affect on the welfare of the elderly. This study aims to reveal the effect of social assistances on the elderly welfare in Turkey. In order to reveal the effect of social assistance, the welfare levels of the elderly individuals living in the households receiving social assistance and the welfare levels of the poor but not receiving social assistance are presented in a comparative way. Analyzes were carried out through the 2020 Income and Living Conditions Survey micro dataset conducted by TurkStat. In the study, descriptive statistics and relative poverty calculations are included by using the quantitative research method. In the study, the level of elderly welfare was calculated on the basis of GAI indicators. As a result of the research, it was seen that social assistances provided an improvement of 0.6 points on elderly poverty. In addition, it has been observed that social assistances does not have a positive effect on the elderly individuals' ability to go on holiday, healthy diet, access appropriate environmental conditions and their capacity/ability levels. Thus, it has been revealed that social assistances has a very limited positive effect on the economic welfare of the elderly, but this is insufficient to have a positive effect on the general welfare level.

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