On June 22, with 72 votes, the law to guarantee the rights of the population with disabilities was approved.The President of the Republic, Nayib Bukele, returned with observations the “Special Law for the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities” considering, among other things, that it is not feasible to guarantee a universal pension for all persons with disabilities in El Salvador.
Article 75 of the law, approved by the Legislative Assembly last June, grants a universal pension to people with disabilities, as well as access to free health and life insurance. However, the Government assures that these changes are not possible, based on a technical opinion of the Superintendency of the Financial System (SSF).
According to Bukele’s observation, non-contributory pensions (that is, those that don’t com from workers’ contributions), are a subsidy. That is, they are granted when the beneficiary does not have another pension or higher income, having to meet the requirements as a necessity and be within the population in a situation of poverty.
“Based on the reasons set forth and the ambiguous and indeterminate form of wording, the aforementioned provision would be inapplicable and, consequently, would suffer from practical legal effectiveness, so its elimination from the approved bill would be pertinent,” said Bukele in his observations.
However, the president proposes that measures be included to improve the standard of living of people with disabilities living in poverty, with a new wording of the article that takes the State “in accordance with its financial capacities”, to promote a “differentiated pension”, that will be determined according to a medical evaluation of the person’s disability. This exam will be carried out by the Salvadoran Institute for Integral Rehabilitation (ISRI).
Deputy David Reyes assured that the deputies have not yet discussed the observation on the universal pension. “The person with a disability needs to be able to have some kind of support, I am not talking about a $ 300 pension, I am talking about some kind of support to be able to have an independent life,” Reyes insisted.
Reyes is a deputy for Arena and president of the “Committee on family, childhood, adolescence and people with disabilities”, which must analyze this proposal of the Executive to reform article 75 of that law.
Among the benefits of the law, in addition, the deputies included a provision so that people with disabilities who are in charge of a contributor to the Salvadoran Social Security Institute (ISSS) can be registered as their beneficiaries and thus enjoy the health service ; but the government is also opposed.
According to the Executive, it is necessary to carry out pertinent studies because Social Security is already going through a process of adaptation of its regulatory framework.
