On Wednesday, the 24th of April, Latvian Saeima’s Social and Employment Matters Committee proposed looking for a different solution to provide pension-age person care benefits.
Currently people of pension age in need of a special care benefit are provided with it based on the disability report filed by the State Commission of Physicians for Health and Work Capacity Examination Republic of Latvia (VDEĀVK). Because of increase workload, however, consideration of provision of disability can take approximately six months.
Latvian Ministry of Welfare Social Services and Disability Policy Department’s Director Aldis Dūdiņš admits the situation is paradoxical, which is why the duty to assess and recognise the state of disability could be delegated to a different institution. For example, a general practitioner could be able to do this based on various specific criteria. However, there is a risk of the doctor being “too nice to patients, giving away disability certificates left and right,” says Dūdiņš.
Saeima deputy Ingrīda Circene stressed that people of pension age who are in need of special care often never get a disability certificate or they are left with nothing by the time the certificate finally arrives.
According to her, these people should be provided with special care benefits based on other criteria, ones that do not involve disability or incapacity for work.
Although Latvian Employers’ Confederation’s Social Security and Healthcare expert Pēteris Leiškalns mentions that a disability is linked to incapacity for work, people of pension age are eligible to a special care benefit regardless. Provision of a disability certificate to a person of pension age in order for them to receive the aforementioned benefit creates unnecessary workload for VDEĀVK.
“We need other solutions, because this is not a case when disability should play a part if a person is of pension age. We need a separate framework to make sure a person has no need to receive a disability certificate in order to receive aid at the age of 80 or 90,” stressed Circene.
The Ministry of Welfare is working on an action plan to promote availability and further develop long-term social care services, enhance the capacity of social care workers, and think of ways to retain social care centre workers. The plan also provides support for informal caretakers.
The plan also provides for adding to the overall basket of services additional kinds of services, such as home care, social care centre care, as well as improvement of social care centre service quality, re-organisation of infrastructure.
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