News

8 March 2023

Ombudsman Diana Kovacheva again sent a recommendation to the Acting Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Labour and Social Policy Lazar Lazarov and to the Acting Minister of Health Dr. Asen Medzhidiev and the Director of the National Social Security Institute Ivaylo Ivanov, in which she again insists that the necessary actions be taken to resume all delayed payments to disabled people, as the chaos in the system continues.

The reason is again the numerous complaints, signals and calls received from citizens who alerted the institution of the Ombudsman that through no fault of theirs they have not yet been re-certified and in March they were once again left without the support they were entitled to from the State.

We remind that effective from 25 January this year, the Persons with Disabilities was amended at the initiative of the Ombudsman and was voted during the last days of the 48^th National Assembly so that people do not lose their rights and receive their disability pensions while waiting for re-certification, which takes place after submitting an application-declaration. Thus, until a new TELK (Territorial Expert Medical Commission) decision is issued, the Regional Health Inspections (RHI) are obliged to provide information to all responsible bodies so that financial and targeted support to people with disabilities is not interrupted, including free vignette stickers, the right to personal assistance, assistant support, tax benefits, etc.

Prof. Kovacheva has already warned several times of the chaos in the system and despite the public promises given to pay back the funds owed since the beginning of March, people are still left without funds they truly need to survive.

Therefore, the Ombudsman sent a new recommendation to the competent authorities and summarised the main problems faced by the people with disabilities in three groups.

          The first group of problems is in connection with the initially announced lists of only 1,600 people with delayed re-certification, submitted by the Ministry of Health (MoH) to the National Social Security Institute (NSSI) and the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy (MLSP). The other disabled people who were not included in the above-mentioned lists are forced to wait for follow-up actions, during which time they still do not receive the support they need.

The Ombudsman also emphasizes that, in addition, the lists in question are not accessible to the affected citizens and preliminary inquiries cannot be made on them. This creates significant difficulties for people receiving their support in post offices, as they are forced to wait in long queues during the pension payment period to check if they are on the lists.

The next group of problems is that of the about 1,600 persons initially announced as included in the lists, only 962 persons have actually received the resumption of their support from the NSSI.

“The difference between the recovered funds and the preliminary data raises questions about the reason why more than 600 people dropped out of the lists and about the way decisions were made. The data in citizens' complaints are disturbing, as they state that the main criterion for the inclusion of citizens in the lists is "the submission of an application-declaration for re-certification no later than three months before the expiration of the term of their expert decisions, but within a three-month period from the date of the application "TELK has not ruled on the type and degree of disability/degree of permanently reduced working capacity", writes the Ombudsman.

 The third group of interrelated problems is the information published on the official websites of the NSSI and the MLSP, confirmed in the complaints of citizens, i.e. the requirement that people with disabilities should have submitted an application-declaration for re-certification no later than three months before the expiration of their expert decisions. This applies even to the cases of proceedings commenced and pending before the recent amendments to the Persons with Disabilities Act and the Health Act came into force.

“It is important to emphasize that under § 5 of the Transitional and Final Provisions of the Act amending and supplementing the Persons with Disabilities Act “proceedings initiated and not concluded before the entry into force of this Act on the re-certification of persons by the medical examination authorities, as well as the initiated and unfinished proceedings up to 4 months after its entry into force, shall be  completed by applying Article 101b of the Health Act, regardless of the deadline for submitting an application-declaration by the disabled persons or by persons authorised by them, or by their legal representatives”. Moreover, the existing legal framework by 25 January 2023 did not provide for any deadline by which interested citizens should have submitted their application-declarations for re-certification. The retroactive introduction of additional conditions that limit the opportunities of those affected to exercise their rights is unlawful and puts citizens in an extremely vulnerable position in an even more critical situation,” the public defender points out.

In conclusion, Diana Kovacheva again insists on the accelerated provision of information by the Ministry of Health and the immediate resumption of support to all entitled people with disabilities, without further delays and introduction of additional, restrictive conditions.