Protesters demand more gov't aid for people with disablilities

The protesters want disability payouts raised to equal the minimum monthly unemployment benefit in Poland, which stands at around PLN 1,000 (EUR 240), and for an extra handout of PLN 500 per month for disabled adults who cannot care for themselves.

According to Iwona Hartwich, the mother of a 21-year-old with a disability, her child is entitled to two benefits and receives PLN 900 per month.

“These figures are pathetically low,” Hartwich said.

The protest was described by some media as a continuation of a 17-day-long demonstration in parliament in 2014, when about 30 people, mainly parents who cared for their disabled adult children, demanded higher disability payouts. Those protests ended with the valorization of benefits.

Arkadiusz Mularczyk, a member of parliament from the ruling Law and Justice party, said on Thursday: “I am certain that this protest will not last 17 days,” adding that he was sure the government would help.

In 2014, Law and Justice party MP Elżbieta Rafalska, then a member of the opposition and today minister for social policy, supported the protest and promised to help families of people with disabilities, Hartwich said.

But Hartwich added that Law and Justice has not fulfilled those promises since coming to power in 2015 and said that there was no mention of changes to disability policy during the party’s conference last weekend.

On Wednesday, and again on Thursday, Rafalska asked protesters to meet her, but they insisted on talking to Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki or Law and Justice leader Jarosław Kaczyński.

Meanwhile, Kukiz’15 party member Agnieszka Ścigaj submitted bills to increase welfare payouts, which she said would help 285,000 people and would cost less than PLN 1 billion each year. (vb/pk)

Source: IAR