Disputable disabilities are ravaging the state budget

Monthly payments for employment subsidies for persons with a recognized status and percentage of disability reached a monthly amount of 2,7 million euros, it was announced to "Vijesti" from the Employment Office, where the Fund for Professional Rehabilitation and Employment of Persons with Disabilities works, which pays these benefits .

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, every month while they are employed. The law does not, as in other countries, limit the amount of earnings that can be subsidized or the total amount that is subsidized. That is why there are cases where employers register these people with monthly earnings of more than eight thousand euros.

When "Vijesti" in April of last year wrote the article "Millions of frauds involving persons with disabilities", in which they warned about the abnormal growth in the number of persons with disabilities and the high wages that employers report them to, the number of employed persons with disabilities who received compensation at that time was 1.727 and the monthly amount paid by the Fund for their subsidies was about 1,2 million. Now the number of people who exercise the right to wage subsidy has increased to 4.700, and the monthly amount to 2,7 million.

In 2022, a total of 14,5 million euros were paid for these subsidies, last year 22 million, and this year it will exceed the sum of 30 million. This year's budget foresees a sum of 20 million euros for these purposes, and since the state is the guarantor of the payment of these subsidies, with the rebalancing of the budget, they will have to increase this amount by another ten million.

That there is something wrong with the number of people who are recognized as having a high percentage of disability and with the amount of earnings that employers report them to, in the past year and a half, the until recently president of the Management Board of the Employment Agency warned in "Vijesti" more than once Dejan Vojvodic and head of the Fund Denis Martinovic. They submitted initiatives to amend the law, limit the amount of subsidy payments, to check the work of medical commissions,... Since then, a working group was formed that is still working on the preparation of proposals for amendments to the law.

The law intended that employers who do not employ persons with disabilities pay a special compensation - a fine, from which this fund was supposed to be financed. However, already in 2022, the Fund's income from this hope amounted to 9,8 million euros, and it is decreasing year by year, while the payments for these subsidies at that time were 14,5 million euros. According to the data so far, this year the Fund will have an income of about nine million, and the expenses for subsidy payments will exceed 30 million.

This means that this disputed state expenditure will amount to half-yearly installments for the construction of the highway.

"Vijesti" previously wrote about how medical commissions, especially in Berane and Rožaje, issue drastically more certificates for recognizing the status of a person with a disability and a high percentage of disability, where ten percent of the population has this status. Examples were also cited where citizens from other cities change their residence to these municipalities, and after receiving a certificate of disability, they move their residence back to their previous municipality.

That people with disabilities, formally or not, continue to be insured for very high wages in order to receive high subsidies is also shown by the fact that in the last month the largest subsidy paid to an employer for one employee was 4.192 euros, which is almost two and a half monthly prime minister's salary.

Since there is no legal limit on the amount of the subsidy, but it depends on the percentage of disability and the amount of earnings reported by the employer, the Institute and the Fund do not have the possibility to challenge the payment of such subsidies.

"The institute previously sent requests to the inspection to review certain payments. However, it is important to emphasize that subsidies are paid on the basis of gross earnings reported by the employer, without limits. Changes to the Law on Professional Rehabilitation are currently underway, and it is expected that the new legal solutions will bring significant results in this area," said the Institute to "News".

The new Council of the Fund begins its work today

For two months, the Fund for Rehabilitation and Employment of Persons with Disabilities did not have its Council - a five-member administrative body that approves new requests for subsidy payments for employment of persons with disabilities. The new council will start working today, after last week its last member, a representative of the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Dialogue, was appointed.

For the first time since 2014, Goran Macanović, who chaired the Council, will not be in this Council, because his candidacy for a new mandate was not accepted, given that he is under investigation by the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption.

New members in front of organizations of persons with disabilities are Mirela Korac i Milorad Hajrović, while in front of state institutions are representatives Meliha Ledinić, Slobodan Milatović i Lidija Pejović.

Part of the employers complained that due to the delay in the election of the Council, the payment of wage subsidies for the disabled people they employed was delayed.

The institute states that the election of Council members was prolonged due to the recent reconstruction of the Government, as it included changes in the composition of the Government, which affected various administrative processes.

"It is not true that due to the incomplete Council of the Fund, it is not possible to make wage subsidy payments to people with disabilities. However, it is true that the Council could not consider new requests for recognition of the right to wage subsidies, which made it impossible to pay subsidies for these new requests. In the previous period, there were sporadic delays in subsidy payments, and this caused certain legal procedures. For example, last year there was a delay due to waiting for the budget rebalancing, as a result of which there were no funds for payment", the Institute stated.