The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs is beginning to look for an option for 7,000 people who will not be provided with a social assistant, said the social minister Denitsa Sacheva.
The government adopted a home care program that partially solved the problem of 13,000 people in need of assistant who remained without care after the approval of the Personal Assistance Act. 6,000 people will have a personal assistant – the elderly and the most severely disabled.
“These 6,000 people, who will be enrolled in the national home care program, are scheduled to receive an assistant for 8 hours a day. But in some cases, people will only need 2 or 4 hours of help, so the assistants will be able to cover the needs of other people as well, “the minister said. Sacheva added that the municipalities also have care programs and some people will be covered by them If in these circumstances they remain without personal assistants, other solutions will be sought, said Minister Sacheva.
She added that about 2,000 people have given up on using a personal assistant themselves because they fall into a different category and take advantage of the social support.
Minister Denitsa Sacheva answered questions from all parties in the Parliament’s Committee on Social Affairs. The main issue discussed there was the Social Assistance Act.
