Greece disability list additions ignite row - The Best from Greece

Posted on: 11/Jan/2012

Disabled groups in Greece have slammed a government plan to categorise assorted varieties of criminal citizens, such as pyromaniacs, kleptomaniacs and, most controversially, paedophiles as disabled, over fears that it could undermine their state benefits.

The Greek government decision was announced on 9 January, but the National Confederation of Disabled People described the action as “incomprehensible”, claiming that paedophiles could even be eligible for more disability pay than certain patients who had received organ transplants.

The Greek Labour Ministry said that the categories that have been added to the expanded list — that also includes pyromaniacs, compulsive gamblers, fetishists and sadomasochists, according to the Associated Press news agency — were intended to provide a medical assessment for the allocation of financial assistance.

The list now provides pyromaniacs and paedophiles with disability pay of up to 35%, compared to 80% for heart transplant recipients.

Yannis Vardakastanis, head of the National Confederation of Disabled People, said that the new code would simplify the definition of disability, limiting it to medical conditions.

The Greek Labour Ministry said that a panel of medical experts had decided to include such behavioural disorders on the list, but the new categories did not signify benefit entitlement.

The new list was drawn up because of "the need to update the old regulation, which had been in place since 1993", the statement said on Tuesday.

"No insured citizen has received any benefit under the new rates," the statement explained.

Vardakastanis, who is blind, said that the confederation was in talks with Labour Minister Giorgos Koutroumanis to try to get the new code changed before it goes to the Greek parliament, where a vote would make it law.

The Greek government has been told by the EU and International Monetary Fund (IMF) to cut spending drastically. The release of a second urgently needed EU-IMF bailout, worth €130bn, is conditional on deep austerity cuts, which will mean more hardship for vulnerable sections of Greek society, such as those who rely on welfare benefits.

source: http://www.neurope.eu/article/greece-disability-list-additions-ignite-row

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