Kostelka: Personal assistance for disabled people

Personal assistance for disabled people

The law for equal opportunities entitles disabled people to personal assistance. However, a 26-year-old suffering from spastic paralysis does not receive the personal assistance needed to live independently from his family.

The young man lives in Upper-Austria with his parents. He is 80 % paralysed and finished his apprenticeship as an office administrator in December 2009. Since January 2010, he works as a secretary in Linz, the capital of Upper Austria. His father quit his job to be able to take his son to work and pick him up afterwards – all together, this means four hours driving every day. Since the family has to care for the 90-years-old grandfather and two children of minor age, the 26-year-old wants to help his family and wants to move to Linz. Therefore, he needs personal assistance – but due to budgetary reasons, his application was rejected by the authorities.

A representative of the Upper Austrian Government explained that the authorities had to do home visits to determine whether personal assistance is really needed. This procedure had been first rejected by the father but will now take place as a first necessary step towards a personal assistance.

According to the Upper Austrian law for equal opportunities, people in need do have a right to personal assistance as long as resources are available, said Ombudsman Peter Kostelka. As the budget of the public authorities is tight and not enough funds are available more than 100 people are waiting for personal assistance, criticised Ombudsman Kostelka.