On Tuesday, May 13, over 300 people—mainly the disabled persons, but also some of their family members , personal assistants, and other allies—gathered outside the Prime Minister’s Office in Warsaw to demand that the government speed up work on a draft law on personal assistance. Discussions between the Ministry of Family, Labor, and Social Policy and the Ministry of Finance on the final shape of the document are still ongoing. The latter ministry consistently demands that one of the conditions for obtaining the right to personal assistance be that the disabled person renounce some of the financial support which they receive from the state. It also points out that with the entry into force of the personal assistance bill, similar support provided as part of public tasks by local governments or non-governmental organizations should be phased out.
Both of these proposals are very dangerous for the disabled persons who need constant and intensive support in their daily lives. It should be noted that the very limited opportunities for these persons to receive support from someone other than family members has created a number of dependencies—from emotional to housing and financial. Therefore, the dilemma of “cash in the household budget or access to PA” will be decided not disabled persons, but by their actual “caregivers” who will choose cash.
Persons with multiple impairments, profound intellectual ones, or who use alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) will be denied access to personal assistance. For these persons, expanding the boundaries of their independence is both the most important and the most difficult thing. Some persons with disabilities who need access to personal assistance will not be entitled to it under the bill, at least not in the first year of implementation. Therefore, project-based assistance should be maintained, primarily for adults with less than maximum but still significant needs for support in daily life, as well as children and youth with disabilities who are under 13 years old – until all of them will become eligible for applying for PA under the base of the new law.
