Millions of scams through people with disabilities

The Employment Agency and the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare suspect that large-scale abuses are taking place in the payment of subsidies from the Fund for Professional Rehabilitation and Employment of Persons with Disabilities, which have led to bankruptcy of the Fund and caused multimillion-dollar damage to the state budget.

According to the Law on Professional Rehabilitation and Employment of Persons with Disabilities from this Fund, money is paid to employers who employ persons with disabilities up to 75 percent of the gross salary for which that person is registered. The law does not limit the amount of earnings that can be subsidized or the total amount that can be subsidized.

Part of the employers and persons with disabilities noticed this legal gap, so they began to report employed persons with disabilities for unexpectedly high salaries of several thousand euros each, and the record holder reported a monthly gross salary of 8.456 euros. Cases have also been recorded of people with disabilities setting up their own companies where they employ themselves at abnormally high wages and almost their only income is subsidies from the state.

The fraud is reflected in the fact that a person with a disability is registered for the amount of 8.456 euros of monthly gross earnings, and that he receives a subsidy of 75 percent, or 6.342 euros, from the state. Total taxes and contributions on that gross salary amount to around 2.450 euros, so that the employer and the person with disabilities have a net salary of 3.900 euros per month.

This disabled person is hired as a consultant at a salary that is double the salary of the President of the State and the Government combined.

This Fund receives money from a special contribution paid by all employers who do not employ a disabled person, amounting to five percent each. average earnings per total number of employees that employer has.

Thus, last year the Fund generated 9,8 million euros in revenue, while the expenses from the subsidy to employers who employed a person with a disability amounted to 14,5 million euros, and the difference was compensated from the state budget. This loss was due to the increasing wages applied for by people with disabilities, as well as the growth in the number of employers applying for these subsidies.

Coordinator of the Professional Rehabilitation Fund Denis Martinovic he told "Vijesti" that they noticed this problem and the scope for possible abuses and that they reported it to the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare.

"Most people with disabilities are registered for wages ranging from minimum to average at the state level, but we also have a significant number of those registered for wages of several thousand euros each who request subsidies for those amounts, which takes more and more money from the Fund and renders this humane purpose meaningless . We noticed that in the beginning they also reported people with disabilities on the usual amounts of wages, and then they increased these amounts more and more until this record amount of eight and a half thousand euros", said Martinović.

He stated that the law does not give them the opportunity to dispute and control these amounts, but only to pay them, which is why he calls for an urgent amendment to the law, because the number of employers who request subsidies in this way is rapidly increasing, as well as the amounts that the state has to pay, while the Fund's income falls, which creates costs for the budget, which must compensate for the difference.

"In the last two years, the income of the Fund has decreased from 10,5 to 9,8 million, and the expenses have increased by four million. Last year, the number of people requesting subsidies increased by a total of 500, and for February of this year alone, we have another 160 new requests. The law should be amended urgently to limit the amount of earnings that can be subsidized," said Martinović.

In 2017, the number of employers who requested such subsidies was 214, and at the end of last year there were 1.727, which is an increase of 807 percent in five years. The number of persons with disabilities for whom the subsidy is paid increased from 319 to 2.970.

Ministry: We initiated the amendment of the law

The Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare told "Vijesta" that they received information from the Employment Office about cases of subsidies paid for above-average wages.

"For these reasons, the Institute is not able to regularly pay its obligations, so it is necessary to rebalance the budget or often redirect funds. In addition, an initiative was also sent to change the legal regulations in order to limit the amount of subsidized earnings. The Ministry has initiated certain activities in order to solve this problem as soon as possible. Along with these activities, we are working on the adoption of a new Law on professional rehabilitation and employment of persons with disabilities, as well as the Law on a single expert body, when this area will be rounded off and significantly improved", the Ministry stated.

However, the question is when the change in the Law will be adopted due to the political crisis, and this Fund and the state budget suffer great damage every month.