There is currently a great uncertainty for many people with a disability in Styria: you can no longer give personal assistants as free employees on order as before. Now it is feared that this often throws the towel – or the system will be considerably more expensive.
It is a styic success model: people with disabilities receive a personal budget that they can use to finance personal help upon request. You can agree with these people what support they do in daily life when and where – whether it is purchasing, guidance with excursions or help in the household.
People with disabilities are self -determined and not determined externally. The budget is transferred in advance in advance, receipts and invoices must be presented. Most people who are affected in Styria have free service contracts with their assistants. “It was easy for her to handle it,” says De Verein Gerweiser, who advises and taught about this.
But now a stop has been advanced. As the social department of the State reports in an information letter, the ÖGK no longer accepts free employment relationships. Suppose assistants must register an exchange or be directly employed by customers. But that is excluded for most, says GeWeiser chairman Alfons Rupp. Because they would work in addition to their studies in this area and appreciate flexibility in this job.
“There is fear and uncertainty”
“There is fear and uncertainty in people with disabilities,” Rupp emphasizes. “The system of help in Styria, which has been working well and is based on mutual accommodation for many years, threatens to tilt completely.” Because even if there were enough assistants as an employee, the system becomes more expensive – and people with disabilities are de facto less money available.
The background of current developments is efforts to standardize the system in Austria. Styria sees its successful model in danger, FPö emphasizes social spokesperson Philipp Königher. “There are no new solutions for bureaucratic unity of the Ministry of Social Affairs, but a respectful collaboration with the countries – and especially with those who have struck themselves.” FPö Federal Councilor Peter Samt has also investigated the Ministry of Social Affairs.
Ögk: Decree was canceled in 2017
On request, the ÖGK says: “Assistants work in personal dependence, so that they are subject to temporary and local ties and the instructions of the committee.” That is why the federal administrative court confirmed that personal help is a real employment relationship. A decree that also accepts that freedom of employment had already been withdrawn in 2017 (!). It is quite surprised that the State Styria has only sent a letter this year.
Source: Krone
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