Slovenia will hold a referendum on 11 October 2026 on whether some recipients of social assistance should, in return, perform work beneficial to the community.

The proposal concerns people who are able to work and have no objective obstacles to working. As announced by the Slovenian National Electoral Commission, citizens will express their views on this in an advisory referendum, which means that the result in itself will not introduce a new obligation.

What would they have to do in return for assistance?

The official question translated into Croatian reads: 'Are you in favor of making the right to monetary social assistance for able-bodied persons who have no objective obstacles to work conditional on their active performance of socially beneficial work?'

Simply put, socially beneficial work means performing tasks from which the community benefits. This could, for example, include maintaining public areas or helping distribute food in a humanitarian organization. However, these are examples to help understand the concept. For this referendum, it has not yet been determined what jobs would be performed, how many hours, or how the work would be organized.

Who could the obligation apply to?

If such a law were adopted after the referendum, the obligation would apply to recipients of monetary social assistance who are able to work and have no justified obstacles to doing so. The status of an unemployed person alone would not be sufficient to include someone. It would be necessary to assess their actual possibilities, for example their health condition or the obligation to care for a family member. Children and persons who are not able to work are not the group at which the question is directed. However, the exact group of persons covered and the exceptions would still have to be regulated by law.

What if the majority votes “yes”?

Even then, assistance recipients would not automatically have to start working. The Slovenian parliament is not bound by the result of this referendum, and to change the conditions it would have to pass a law. At the same time, assistance already has conditions today; a person who, without justified reason, refuses activities that could lead them to employment may lose the right to it. Therefore, for recipients, the most important thing will be what the new law would specifically require of them and how it would distinguish between those who refuse to work and those who truly have obstacles.

The question of whether some recipients of social assistance should, in return, perform work beneficial to the community is one of four questions on which citizens will express their views on the same day. According to the announcement of the Slovenian National Electoral Commission, there will also be a vote on amendments to the law on parliamentary inquiries, abolishing the mandatory payment of the fee for RTV Slovenija, and the proposal that only Slovenian citizens and citizens of other member states of the European Union may vote in local elections.