site.btaSocial Policy Ministry to Estimate Funding Needed for Personal Assistance

Sofia, June 13 (BTA) - The Labour and Social Policy Ministry will make an estimate of the financing needed to implement the Personal Assistance Bill proposed by the Ombudsman and will issue an opinion by Friday. Social Policy Minister Bisser PetkovTuesday met with protesting mothers of disabled children, Ombudsman Maya Manolova and experts.

The participants in the meeting discussed details of the proposed regulation of personal assistance, including entitlement, providers, application and financing. Petkov stressed it was important to explain the restructuring of the available resources for people with disabilities proposed in the bill and to reach agreement on the required financing.

Petkov resigned on Monday saying he could not cope with the tension over demands raised by parents of disabled children who had put up tent camps in Sofia and other towns. Prime Minister Boyko Borissov reinstated him on Tuesday under pressure from trade unions and the protestors, who said Petkov had been doing a good job.

The Ombudsman estimates the necessary financing at around 200 million leva, which is paid even now for various social assistance services. The National Social Security Institute puts the number of people entitled to personal assistance benefits at 80,000. Petkov explained that he estimated funding at 300 million leva a year for all potential beneficiaries of one and a half minimum wage and up to 330 hours of care a month. This is still an estimate because the average number of hours of care will become known after the beneficiaries' needs are assessed.

Petkov added that the delivery of services should be aligned with the Social Services Act and the People with Disabilities Act. He recalled that his Ministry had been working on a People with Disabilities Bill with a chapter on personal assistance fortwo months now, but the protestors demanded a separate act on
personal assistance introduced by MPs, which would expedite the procedure.

The Ministry's financial projections will be discussed with the protestors and the Ombudsman, and will be submitted to the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister.

The mothers of disabled children said they would not expand their protests until the Social Policy Ministry issued its position.

Trade unions and employers demanded on Wednesday that the National Council for Integration of People with Disabilities is convened urgently, the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB) reported in a press release. The Council should review the disabled's problems, demands and proposals, and above all, those raised by the protesting mothers of disabled children. This was agreed upon during a meeting late on Tuesday at CITUB's headquarters between trade unions and employers' organizations. CITUB President Plamen Dimitrov has informed Labour and Social Policy Minister Bisser Petkov about the demands in a letter.

Dimitrov says in the letter that the social partners hope that, together with the institutions, the organizations of disabled people, the Ombudsman and protestors, they will find working and long-term solutions which will guarantee the rights of the disabled, and especially those of children.