This paper is a diagnosis of relative poverty impact of social benefits, by analyzing the characteristics of relative poverty in 2008, the profile of persons / households that are below the relative poverty threshold, even in the presence of some social programs, some of them directly designed and focused on the extreme poverty reduction. By our methodology, for highlighting the impact of social benefits groups on relative poverty, established at a threshold of 60% of median income per adult equivalent, we compare the influences of social programs, when these groups of social benefits are and are not included in total income. The simulation reports are obtained by processing the Romanian Household Budget Survey data, of the National Institute of Statistics, Romania.