site.btaLabour Minister Unveils Plan to Reform Disability Assessment Procedures

Labour Minister Unveils Plan to Reform Disability  Assessment Procedures

Sofia, January 28 (BTA) - Labour Minister Ivaylo Kalfin unveiled Thursday a plan for reforms in Bulgaria's disability assessment system. In the new system, a residual functional capacity assessment will replace the current disability assessment.

The proposed changes are being put up for a public discussion as of this day.

The new system will allow a re-assessment of the residual functional capacity by a medical or a social commission when solid grounds exist to question the results of the first assessment, Kalfin told the press. Re-assessment will be done on the request of the social insurer.

The Minister explained that in the existing disability assessment system, the insurer can only question the procedure but not the results of the assessment.

Functional capacity assessment commissions will help disabled people of working age to return on the labour market and earn an income, and thus be useful to themselves and their families.

Many disabled people in Bulgaria at the moment don't even leave their home, Kalfin said.

These commissions will decide whether a disabled person can keep his or her job from before the impairment, whether his job can be adapted to suit his functionality or whether his work hours can be reduced and what funding he or she can use from the available funds for adaptation and accessibility of the working environment.

If a disabled person may not go back to his employer from before the impairment, he or she will be forwarded to the Employment Agency for retraining.

Insured people with disability will also be able to enroll in the physical therapy programme of the National Social Insurance Institute where the functional capacity assessment commission decides that this is needed.

The State will help disabled people go back to work by paying some of the employers' costs for insurance and wages, Kalfin said.

He reiterated his position that the programmes for subsidized employment are inefficient and other options for long-term employment should be sought.

The package for reforming the disability assessment system was elaborated on the basis of the experience of 20 European countries, said the Minister.