Filenews 23 February 2021 - by Despina Psyllaou
Exhaustion and indignation are expressed by families of people with disabilities, who have received a letter from the services of the Ministry of Labour asking them to resubmit their people to evaluations by medical councils. This, as they note, concerns people with disabilities and lifelong syndromes, which must be certified in pandemic time and in a short period of time in order to continue to receive assistance. Typical case, involving an adult with a severe mental disability, which was only assessed in 2018. For its part, the Department of Social Integration of the Ministry of Labour argues that the evaluations are done for the benefit of people with disabilities, specifying that all measures are being taken to protect against the pandemic.
As mentioned above, a typical case was reported to "F", for a woman who passed an evaluation of the Department of Social Integration of Persons with Disabilities at the end of 2018, where a severe and permanent disability was recorded. However, her sister tells "F" that they have received a new letter a few days ago to set a date for a new assessment, causing incredible suffering and distress and endangering a vulnerable person, since she is forced to make unnecessary movements in pandemic conditions. "The letter sent to us dated 5 February 2021 has the character of an "ultimatum", as the Services blackmail that if the attached documents are not presented within two months, all allowances will be cut off," the complainant says.
"The assessment carried out in November 2018 specifies that disability is both severe and permanent, resulting in the approval of a care allowance. Since then we have not applied for any more allowance or assistance from the State. We are being asked, in such a short period of time, to go back to a medical board and even to pandemic conditions. To take my sister to two or three doctor's specialties. Let's certify the obvious. We have to fight again to collect these papers. Besides, what do they expect to change? It's a mental disability in a 32-year-old person. If they want to do a needs assessment, let's send officers home to see how we live," he noted.
In the second case, it is reported that a person with autism has been asked to re-evaluate in order to continue receiving an allowance from the state. In particular, the complainant's sister noted that "they are being forced to re-rate their disability by our fellow human beings with both Down syndrome and autism in order to continue to receive an allowance. A similar letter has just been sent to my brother, who since he was three years old has been diagnosed with classic autism. After 35 years, we still can't self-serve or communicate with our own "normal" codes. My brother in his childhood, in "special" schools, private and public, lived abusive behaviours, contempt, apathy."
"From a baby there was a ball from service to service, from doctor to doctor and from "specialist" to "specialist". Every person with autism is now being asked to go through a corresponding psychoactive procedure again to certify their disability. As if they have not been evaluated or suffered enough in their lives." Instead of advertised integration and independent living, they are once again pulling people with disabilities to prove the obvious, while their data had to be recorded in folders long ago, it is underlined. 'They needed to know that conditions like autism, Down syndrome and many others, it's not flu, which goes through the years or with vaccines to want extra certifications.'
"Suffering for parents"
"They had to count the human factor and that their parents are elderly, for years crushed, however, in the midst of a pandemic, they are forced to run once again their children – most of whom are not easily controlled and unable to wear a mask", stresses the sister of a person with autism.
TWO MONTH TIME PERIOD, DIFFERENT SERVICES
As explained, inter alia, in the letter 'if you do not contact the Department of Social Integration of Persons with Disabilities within two months of the date of the letter, the monthly payment of the disability allowance will be terminated without further notice'. At the same time, it is specified that the applicant will be invited to an assessment of the disability. 'The concept of 'disability assessment' means the assessment carried out by two or three doctors with specialties directly related to the disability faced by the individual'. The aim, he added, is to "certify, describe and document disability."
MINISTRY OF WORK: Only benefit will benefit from the evaluation
The rights of citizens with disabilities are certified
On the case and the complaints of many people, the Ministry of Labour, in yesterday's communication states the following:
For former beneficiaries of public assistance approved for the receipt of a disability benefit by the Social Welfare Services, prior to the adoption of the new legislation on the Minimum Guaranteed Income, under the law, it is necessary to carry out, for the first time, an assessment and certification of disability through the Disability Assessment System. This is not a reassessment since for the first time disability is assessed by committees of experts.
A decision has been taken to avoid any inconvenience to persons with disabilities and in cases where the medical and other certificates presented clearly document situations of permanent and irreversible disability, as judged by the experts, then the physical presence of the person in the Disability Assessment Centres will not be required for the implementation of the assessment, but the relevant certificates will be examined by the Medical Board.
The ministry does not have a policy of ending benefits, on the contrary, according to the data made public in the annual budgets, the total expenditure on the social benefits of people with disabilities for both the purposes of the Welfare Benefit Management Service (EE+ disability benefits) and the Department of Social Integration of Persons with Disabilities increases significantly each year. In particular, more than 15,000 people with disabilities in Cyprus are supported with social benefits from the ministry amounting to €85 million. Annually.
The invalidity assessment has two purposes: on the one hand, to certify the invalidity status of the individual and to satisfy the required disability criteria of the laws and regulations governing the various social benefits and services and, on the other hand, to inform the individual and his family of his or her rights to social benefits and services. In many cases citizens are not aware of their rights and after the evaluation are informed of the available services and benefits they are entitled to, so that they have the opportunity for maximum possible social integration.
Citizens are invited to cooperate with the competent services, to present the required certificates and to have confidence that their ministry treats them with objectivity, equality and justice and does not unnecessarily inconvenience them. For any questions, if they do not find an immediate telephone response due to the heavy workload of the Services, please contact them by e-mail, depending on:
- The Welfare Benefits Management Service, the eee@mlsi.gov.cy
- In the Department of Social Integration of Persons with Disabilities, in info@dsid.mlsi.gov.cy
