Kostelka: Severe injuries sustained by person not at fault. Who pays for the retraining of a nurse?

ORF-Series "Bürgeranwalt" (“Advocate for People”) – Broadcast of September 5th, 2009

Severe injuries sustained by person not at fault. Who pays for the retraining of a nurse?

The programme Bürgeranwalt of 5 September 2009 was dedicated to a case where the State Pension Agency refused to pay for the costs of retraining.

Mrs. A. was injured in two consecutive car accidents of which none was her fault and as a consequence had to undergo intervertebral disc surgery. Since then she has been taking strong analgesics, has been restricted in her daily activities and above all, is now unable to work as a nurse. On the basis of the results of a Job Centre „Job Information Seminar“ she informed herself about a future profession matching her skills and after careful deliberation finally decided to train as a chemical engineer. Both the State Pension Agency (PVA) and the Job Centre, however, refused to pay for the costs or to give her a grant for this 4-year Course at the Technical College. The third-party motor vehicle insurance of the first accident driver is also not willing to pay for the loss of earnings or to contribute to the retraining costs, as the question had not been fully clarified whether the damage to the intervertebral discs had been a pre-existing condition before the accident.

After her unsuccessful attempts to pursue a new profession and thus end her unemployment, Mrs. A. appealed to the Office of the Ombudsperson.

Ombudsperson Kostelka stated in the programme that the proposals for a solution from the side of the Job Centre were unsatisfactory. Mrs. A. was only recommended to change over to Care Management although there were practically no vacancies in Austria. It had not been expected at all that Mrs. A. would be interested in retraining and it had therefore been made more difficult to obtain additional information.

The representative of the State Pension Agency however, explained further that for applications for retraining it was a statutory requirement to individually consider how far the desired choice of profession is congruent with the standard of previous education. Mrs. A. does not have „Matura“ (general qualification for university entrance) and it has therefore to be considered, whether the desired training would also be successfully completed by her. After careful consideration the PVA approved this retraining under the condition that Mrs. A’s progress would be considered again after one year. In a written statement the Director of the Job Centre also assured Mrs. A. that she could draw her unemployment benefit for the duration of her training.

Ombudsperson Kostelka further criticized that the motor vehicle insurance of the accident driver had based its statements hitherto only on one insurance report and now the state of facts had to be examined by an expert witness registered at court. He pleaded in favour of entering negotiations for a settlement immediately after availability of such expert opinion.

Follow-up: A young man in persistent vegetative state. Did the parents receive help?

For five years Mr. and Mrs. M. have been caring for their son who has been in a persistent vegetative state following a motorcycle accident. An application for a disability pension for Mr. M. was turned down and further inquiries with the authorities and the attempt to obtain support were unsuccessful. With the support of the Office of the Ombudsperson Mr. and Mrs. M were able to describe their difficult situation in the programme of October 2008. Ombudsperson Kostelka reported that as a consequence of this the Director of the Department of Social Affairs of the Province of Upper Austria organized a round table where all responsible institutions worked on a solution and agreed a suitable care package for the family M.

Ombudsperson Kostelka emphasized the exemplary cooperation of the individual institutions and because of this Mr. M. was granted a disability pension and the outstanding and future ensuing therapy costs for the care of Mr. M will be borne by the Provincial Government after respective applications.