Evaluation of turkish social assistance system from legal and institutional perspective

The aim of this study is to consider the social assistance implementations applied in accordance with the provisions of the legislation in force for social assistance in Turkish law system, to examine especially social assistance and solidarity foundations' operations in this area in institutional and legal respect and to demonstrate how existing policies and programs for assistance work, to determine the faulty aspects of the system and to offer suggestions on how to reach a better level in this area. In this study, conceptually poverty and social assistance definitions are mentioned and by using official datas, which is declared by Turkish Statistic Institution, income distribution and poverty profile of Turkey is examined. Mainly the constitution and the other legal provisions in Turkish jurisprudence is analyzed in detail and evaluations on this subject is made. Also, within the context of this study, the legal character which is often discussed, administrative and financial structure and main assistance services of social assistance and solidarity foundations, whose main aim is to struggle against poverty and balance the income distribution, are examined and judicial process against foundation decisions is analyzed. As a result of this study, it is inferred that to overcome multidimensional poverty issue and to respond changing and developing problems, there should be amendment and reform studies in Turkish social assistance system, initially in legal infrastructure.