In the past period, representatives of the National Disability Organizations had meetings with numerous government representatives and had the possibility to discuss the current situation in the social policy areas, as well as to convey their demands for advancing the rights of persons with disability.
Meeting with counselors of the Prime-Minister of the Republic of North Macedonia
On 30.03.2022, at the Government of the Republic of North Macedonia, a working meeting was held between the Presidents of the National Council of Disability Organizations in Macedonia (persons with physical disability, blind, deaf and persons with intellectual disability) from one side, and the Chair of the National Coordinative Body for Implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Spase Dodevski and Lidija Krstevska Dojcinovska, State Counselor, on the other hand.
Several issues regarding social policy, social services and protection of the rights of persons with disability were discussed, but the main emphasis was placed on the demand to increase the allowances for care and help from another person, the special allowance and the disability allowance, as well as their binding on the average monthly salary paid in RSM, or their positioning at a certain level and later regular adjustment according to the Swiss formula, a similar solution as in the adjustment of pensioners’ pensions.
Part of the demands of the member organizations of the National Council of Disability Organizations in Macedonia (NCDOM) are:
- The disability allowance should be 40% of the average monthly salary paid in the Republic of North Macedonia for the previous year, aligned according to the new methodology for the increase of the allowance based on the so-called Swiss formula, i.e., share of 50% increase in the cost of living and 50% share of the increase of the minimum wage.
- The special allowance should be 35% of the average monthly salary paid in the Republic of North Macedonia for the previous year, aligned according to the new methodology for the increase of the allowance based on the so-called Swiss formula, i.e., share of 50% increase in the cost of living and 50% share of the increase of the minimum wage.
- The allowance for care and help from another person in larger scale should be 30% of the average monthly salary paid in the Republic of North Macedonia for the previous year, aligned according to the new methodology for the increase of the allowance based on the so-called Swiss formula, i.e., share of 50% increase in the cost of living and 50% share of the increase of the minimum wage.
- The allowance for care and help from another person in smaller scale should be 26,5% of the average monthly salary paid in the Republic of North Macedonia for the previous year, aligned according to the new methodology for the increase of the allowance based on the so-called Swiss formula, i.e., share of 50% increase in the cost of living and 50% share of the increase of the minimum wage.
On these our demands, the representatives of the Government said that they have a meeting with the Minister of Labour and Social Policy, Jovanka Trencevska, right after this one, and that they will present her our demands. Also, they said that in the following days they will have a meeting with the Prime Minister Kovacevski, who could not meet us due to intensified state obligations and meetings.
They pointed out that currently there is a process for preparing a calculation and request for a budget rebalance to increase the existing amounts of the allowances by 15% for now, but they were not able to tell us how the dynamics of the increase will continue, without further consultation with the relevant institutions.
We asked to inform us about the results of the meetings with the relevant institutions, as well as the interventions made by the Government and the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy.
They also informed us that they are working on resolving our other demands whose negotiations have been brought to a final phase, such as reducing the deadline for shoes to 6 months (i.e., two pairs of shoes per year, summer and winter shoes), not to 12 months as before. Additionally, to remove the criterion of employment or schooling for exercising the right to obtain a wheelchair on electric motor, tiflo tactical allowances for the visually impaired, etc.
Meeting of representatives of NCDOM with the Minister of Labour and Social Policy Jovanka Trencevska
Representatives of NCDOM, including representatives of the Republic Centre – PORAKA, on 29th of April had a meeting with the Minister of Labour and Social Policy, Jovanka Trencevska. During the meeting that was held at HHO “Dare Dambaz” the main discussions were regarding the demands that member organization of the National Council of Disability Organizations in Macedonia submitted to the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy.
“In the past period, we have been constantly meeting with civil organizations and parents of children with disability to hear their needs and jointly to create policies and measures in the interest of children and persons with disability. According to these discussions, we are introducing measures and amendments to the laws, in order to improve the live of children and persons with disability. We are committed to overcoming the challenges one by one with sound systematic solutions,” said Trencevska.
The Minister emphasised that the demands of the organizations will be jointly considered, in order to provide easier access to available and free of charge services, and also advancing the rights. Revision of already provided services shall be introduced in order to improve the quality of their delivery and better targeting.
“The aim is not only to increase the level of rights, but also to increase the scope and availability of quality services in the fields of social care, education and health, so that children and persons with disability can receive quality education and gain skills that will provide them with entry into labour market on equal basis with others, and by doing so to give them opportunities to become independent and active citizens who will contribute to themselves and the country” added Trencevska.
The Minister pointed out that all demand submitted to the Ministry will be analysed and with joint efforts we will work on building a system that is fair, which follows the needs of each individual and according to those needs the policies and measures will be created.
After the meeting, the member organizations od NCDOM received a written information regarding the measures that will be implemented in 2022. Below is the received information from the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy:
Based on the meeting and the demands of the members of the National Council of Disability Organizations in Macedonia, the Ministry of labour and Social Policy in cooperation with other relevant ministries and institutions informs you that in 2022 it will implement several measures in the interest of advancing the rights of children and persons with disability:
- Exemption from participation for persons above 26 years of age, beneficiaries of the right to disability in specialist-consultative care, hospital health care and for medicines issued on prescription at the expense of the Health Insurance Fund.
- Amendment to the Law of Child Protection that will allow increase of the special allowance by 15% for all three subtypes of beneficiaries.
- Reducing the age limit for exercising the right to permanent allowance for a parent who cared for his/her child with disability up to the age of 26.
- Amendment to the Law on Social Protection, which will enable amendment to the part for children/persons who can use the service for personal assistance and for children/persons with multiple disabilities, but where one of the disabilities is profound physical disability.
- Amendment to the Decision on the price for social services for 2022, which provides the prices per hour of individual and daily treatment for children/persons with disability by a professional in the licenced day centres for children with disability, i.e., 858 denars for individual treatment and 1,053 denars per day per a user.
- Establishing the Registry for Persons with Disability.
- Amendment to the regulation on orthopaedic aids which will enable provision of orthopaedic aids – shoes every 6 months for all age groups.
- Preparation of new National Strategy for persons with disability 2022-2027.
- Training and job provision for unemployed parents of children with disability at the social services.
- Opening an Early Childhood Intervention centre in cooperation with the Ministry of health and the civil organizations.
- Opening of 10 units for supported living for 50 users from the Special Institution Demir Kapija and the Institute for Rehabilitation Skopje.
The Ministry will continue to promote the rights of children and persons with disability in consultation with the civil organizations, the National Disability Organizations, and the parents of children with disability with whom we have been implementing the following measures and policies in the past three years:
- Establishing two new services for children and persons with disability – Personal Assistance (269 denars per hour) and the service Home Care (289 denars per hour) paid by the centres for Social Work.
- Extension of the Right to Disability to persons with intellectual disability.
- Increasing the allowance for part-time salary for a parent caring for a child with disability up to 50% of the average net salary.
- Introducing permanent allowance for a parent, who took care for his/her child with disability up to 26 years of age without placing the child to an institution, who is unemployed and does not use the right to a pension, after 62 years of age for women and 64 years of age for men (8000 denars per month).
- Increasing the amount of the right to special allowance by 15% and additionally this amount increases by 25% and is 6276 denars per month for materially unprovided families and increase by 50%, i.e., 7531 denars per month for single parents that have a child with disability.
- Funds have been provided for employing 500 educational assistants in total amount of 216 million denars.
- 7 units for supported living have been opened for 35 persons from the Special Institute Demir Kapija.
- Signing the agreement for persons who use Cochlear implants for purchasing the speech processor.
- Amendment to the Regulation for determining the list of repairs of orthopaedic aids to cover the costs of service and repair of the speech processor.
The Ministry of Labour and Social Policy will continue to be an open institution for all, since only together we can create the best solutions for advancing the access to rights and social services, but also the access to labour market and improvement of capacities for employment of persons with disability. At the same time, we will analyse all other demands emphasised during the meeting, for example increasing the amount of the disability allowance, introducing the right for parent caregiver, developing early childhood intervention for children till 5 years of age, providing sign language interpreter as a service, increasing the limit in the Programme for purchasing motor vehicles from 10.000 to 15.000 Euros, return of the funds allocated through the Law on Games of Chance and other solutions that are in the interest of children and persons with disability.
