Disabled people payment delay

“We haven’t had problems with the scheme. The problems derive from some local units that have not made accurate programs for the last two months. If you verify it, all payments have been approved in all districts”, declared the Minister of Labor and Social Works, Spiro Ksera.

In some districts, the disabled people have not received their payments for two or three months. Ksera says that this has happened for another reason.

“This is caused by some abusive decisions of the communes and municipalities for inflating the social assistance schemes, with the members of the councils and communes themselves, in many cases. We have identified these facts during our inspections, but the law didn’t allow us to make their removal from the scheme, because the Council of the Commune and Municipality will decide for these sanctions. From now on, these decisions will be up to the Regional Directory of the State Social Service”, Ksesa declared.

The Minister of Labor says that due to this stalemate, the government will change the law and the procedures that determine the people who are eligible for assistance as disabled persons, but the Minister gave no further details.

“In cooperation with the Ministry of Finances and the Health Ministry, we are reviewing the way how we will evaluate the people who are eligible for social assistance as disabled people, and the way how the evaluation commissions function”, Ksera declared.

Ksera made the balance of 2011 for his Ministry by noting that unemployment figures have fallen and the help to people in need has increased.

New law for disabled persons

The National Council of disabled people reacted after the new draft law of the government, which changed the status of the tetra and paraplegic people by reducing the financial support.

According to Sinan Tafaj, the director of the Disabled People Association, the legal amends will allow the government to set the subventions for the circulation, communication and electrical power consumption rights, which up to now have been set with a special law.

“Until now we have been the ones to set the numbers for each individual, based on a percentage, and all of them have been applied. If their payment will be decided by the government, it allows them to set the payment on a fixed level for everyone, on the level they want. With this change, we have seek the rights that everyone must consume and spend money in the same level”, the head of the Association says.

Tafaj says that there must be consults with the representatives of the disabled people association, before this law is passed in Parliament, because it violates the rights of disabled people. Until now, the government has been consulted with the non government organizations that have nothing to do with the disabled people.

“Fixed payments would create a burden for the budget, and these rights would be fictive and useless for some, and bigger for others. This is our biggest concern, and we have not been consulted for this. We ask Minister Ksera to not use as advisers people who are in perfect health and money in their pockets, but us, and that we get heard for our requests”, Tafaj declared.

A few days ago, the disabled people protested for the abuses that are being made with their lists, in which are included many people who benefit their payments illegally. On the lists of disabled people were even businesses that had their energy price reduced. The National Council of Disabled People sent this list to the Prosecution for investigating the way how these people have been enlisted, who cause an artificial budget increase for this category.

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