Equal opportunity

Deputies of the Committee for Social Policy considered law-in-draft “On Approval of the State Targeted Program “Equal Opportunities” for 2019-2022”. The developed document is aimed at maintaining the social activity of people with disabilities and people with limited mobility. In particular, it is planned to create conditions for the free movement of persons with disabilities, as well as their employment.

Deputies of the Committee on Social Policy will recommend adopting the law-in-draft in the first reading. Lawmakers plan to further refine the document with the government and adopt it in the final version in the near future.

The provision of social support to people with disabilities is reflected in the legislations relating to the amendment of the law “On the social protection of persons with disabilities”. The first is proposed to increase the size of the compensation payment for non-working parents who are caring for a disabled child from 35 to 100 MW per month. Today, there are over half a thousand such recipients. Taking into account the fact that 1 MW is 9.7 rubles, such payments may amount to 970 rubles as early as next year. As stated in the explanatory note to the document, the necessary expenses in the amount of more than 4.5 million rubles were taken into account in the republican budget, as well as in the budget of the Unified State Social Insurance Fund for 2019. Legislative initiative was supported by deputies of the relevant committee.

The second law-in-draft concerns the provision of benefits for utilities. Today, people with disabilities I and II of the visually impaired and deaf-and-dumb groups (also disabled with groups I and II) receive a 100% discount when they pay utility bills, and for those living in houses that do not have central heating, it is provided for paying for fuel and transport services delivery. The main condition for obtaining such benefits is the absence of registered other persons. The proposed changes to the law will be able to provide the right to receive a 100% discount even if there are registered minor children. Currently it is 50%. The state will need to annually seek about 23 thousand rubles for these purposes. The profile committee will recommend the deputies to adopt the law-in-draft in two readings.