Following the proposal of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia passed a new Law amending the Law on Social Protection, which introduces a new right – reimbursement for purchasing a passenger vehicle.
In the original proposal on the amendments given by the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy persons with intellectual disability were not foreseen. But, after the reaction of the Republic Center for Support of Persons with Intellectual Disability – PORAKA to the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and to the members of the Committee of Labour and Social Policy at the Assembly of RM, the amendments included persons with moderate, severe and profound intellectual disability.
The Law on amendments of the Law on Social Protection is published in the Official Gazette of RM no.33/05.03.2015 and is already in force, and the new chapter reads:
“REIMBURSEMENT FOR PURCHASING PASSENGER VEHICLES”
Article 213-a
Person with at least 80% disability of the lower extremities, person with moderate, severe and profound intellectual disability, totally blind person with a companion and totally deaf person may apply for a refund of the money paid as customs duties, VAT and excise tax for the purchase of a passenger vehicle, which will be driven by the applicant or his/her spouse, parent, child or another relative that lives with the person and is obligated to support the person in compliance to the Family Law, i.e. guardian, and the vehicle shall only be used to meet the transportation needs of the person which would allow easer social integration in the community.
The application from Paragraph 1 of this Article for purchasing a passenger vehicle may be submitted once in a period of five years for a vehicle with a value up to 10.000 EUR in MKD equivalent.
The application from Paragraph 1 of this Article with the required documentation is submitted to the Commission for reimbursement for purchasing a passenger vehicle.
Commission for reimbursement for purchasing a passenger vehicle, constituted of five members, two representatives from the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy, two representatives from the Ministry of Finance and one from the Institute for Social Activities, with a two-year mandate”.
Further follow four Articles of this Chapter in the Law where the procedures referring to this new right are explained.
Moreover, with the new amendments, foster families receive increase in the allowance for the fostered person and the fostering allowance for 25%, which additionally adds to the unequal treatment of the state towards biological families of children/persons with intellectual disability.
Foster families received increase on the two allowances: the monthly allowance for the expenses of the fostered child is 7.500 MKD and the monthly allowance for fostering is 3.125 MKD. Furthermore, foster families also have a special allowance for the fostered child which is 4.300 MKD, and one-time (single) financial aid. Moreover, the Law on Social Protection foresees that the foster person who has fostered a child for at least five years in his/her family, and is unemployed and does not have a right to a pension, after 62 years of age has the right to a financial aid in an amount of 8.000 MKD. On the other hand, biological parents due to the need of 24 hours care for their child/person with moderate, severe or profound intellectual disability are not in a position to be employed and are in a situation of social risk. This situation deepens, because despite the inability of employment, parents do not receive adequate support from the state and are discriminated against the foster families. This unequal treatment causes great disagreement and revolt with the biological families.
Therefore, the Republic Center – PORAKA asked the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy and the Assembly of RM to make the allowances used by foster families to be available for the biological families as well.This will provide for strengthening the biological families in order to prevent institutionalization of their children. Especially vulnerable are unemployed parents and single parents that cannot provide subsistence for them and for their child with intellectual disability (around 2000 families). This request has not been accepted, but a promise has been given that the state will work on solving this issue in the next period.
We recall that the poor economic status of the persons with intellectual disability and their families, apart the abovementioned, is due to the fact that only persons with intellectual disability do not receive any support as an allowance according their intellectual disability. All other groups of persons with disability receive special allowances according their disability – persons with physical disability receive allowance for mobility (7.000 MKD), blind persons receive allowance for blindness (7.000 MKD) and deaf persons receive allowance for deafness (4.000 MKD).
