People with Disabilities Protest against Intended Disability Assessment Rules

People with disabilities staged a protest on 11^th of April against the intended reforms in the disability assessment system. They are dissatisfied with the idea of introducing a new system for assessing work capability, although yesterday thedraft new rules were pulled out.

The draft Ordinance on medical assessment was withdrawn, but the concept on the assessment remains in place. This is a huge reform, the protesters say - "yes to the reform, but not in this way".

The protesters insist that all the details of this reform be discussed with them.

In response to the protestors' demands, Social Minister Biser Petkov said he was ready to continue the dialogue with the organizations of people with disabilities. He invited them to a meeting tomorrow at the Social Ministry.

Petkov explained that there is an assessment of work capability and it is an expression of the new approach to assessment of people with disabilities, where the social, rather than the medical, approach is leading.

According to him, the concept of the reform on the assessment of working capacity, which was submitted to the National Assembly at the end of last year, cannot be withdrawn.

The fact that there were no follow up events on this concept means that it is frozen, if I may say it figuratively, the mnister said. And we wait to continue the talks with representatives of the people with disabilities to whether it could be the basis for some major changes or whether we should actually work on a whole new concept, he added.