Filenews 9 December 2025
The Parliamentary Labour Committee was informed on Tuesday that the Government is expected to submit in early 2026 the bill for the establishment of special legislation for people with disabilities (PWD).
In statements after the end of the Committee's session, the new Deputy Minister of Social Welfare, Klea Hatzistefanou Papaellina, stated that "the legislation has been characterized as an emblematic action, it is the biggest reform because it strengthens the organizations representing people with disabilities, expands the beneficiaries of services and also provides new groups of beneficiaries of people with disabilities, modernizes, increases and expands the existing ones, social, monetary and other benefit data and much more.
"The essence for us as a Deputy Ministry is that we came as a team, we listened again, and we will continue to listen," he stressed. The discussion will continue with the aim of submitting the legislation to the Parliament for a vote as soon as possible, he added.
The President of the Parliamentary Labor Committee, AKEL MP, Andreas Kafkalias, said that the funds included in the state budget for 2026 "are not considered sufficient to support what we all want to achieve".
In addition, he said that the Labour Committee was informed that the Government will submit the bill at the beginning of the new year, "so that we have the next period and until the end of this parliamentary term to examine the bill, to take it to the Plenary for final decisions".
The independent MP, Andreas Apostolou, expressed his support for the demands of the disability movement, while expressing the belief "that the funds that should be given to implement this reform should be greater than those included in the budget for 2026".
He also called on the President of the Republic "to proceed immediately with the reform of the legislation for the disabled and to listen to the anxieties of all of us, especially the disability movement, so that we can increase these funds even more to really support our fellow human beings, who need it and who have been wronged for many decades".
The President of KYSOA, Themis Anthopoulou, welcomed "the political will of the Christodoulidis Government for the implementation of this emblematic reform", noting at the same time that "the €46 million that have been approved in the Medium-Term Financial Framework 2026-2028 are not enough when only the release of disability benefits from the Guaranteed Minimum Income amounts to about €65 million".
«We prudently demand the increase of this amount, so that it really becomes feasible, essentially felt by the people who are led to misery due to their disability", he pointed out. "The disabled people of Cyprus must finally, so many years after the ratification of the United Nations Convention, feel that they enjoy their rights and first and foremost the right to a dignified life," he indicated.
CNA
