People with disabilities in Lithuania face EU’s highest poverty risk

Lithuania is nearing a point where some people with severe disabilities could be left without essential assistance, LRT reported. Parents caring for them are calling for legislative changes during the new parliamentary session to implement United Nations recommendations and ensure support regardless of their municipality.

Aušra and three other young people with severe disabilities live in a home established by their parents. Initiatives of this kind remain rare in Lithuania, forcing most families to manage on their own.

A United Nations finding also concluded that independent living remains inaccessible to many people with disabilities in Lithuania, while community-based services are lacking.

“So that families do not become unpaid labour for patching up the social system, so that mothers can work, so that people with disabilities have a roof over their heads and so that mothers can retire because they are ageing,” said Henrika Varnienė, head of the charity and support foundation Nepatogūs.

Varnienė said disability organisations calculated in 2019 that families’ expenses exceeded 3,000 euros per month on average. She said the issue had never been properly addressed and that people with disabilities in Lithuania faced the highest risk of poverty in the European Union.

Representatives of parliament, ministries, municipalities and non-governmental organisations met ahead of the parliamentary session to discuss why the quality of life of people with disabilities was not improving as quickly as it should.

At present, funding for people with severe disabilities comes from the state budget, while funding for people with less severe disabilities comes from municipalities. However, the quality and quantity of services differ between municipalities.

Violeta Šimkūnienė, a member of the Social Affairs Committee of the Association of Municipalities, said national guidelines, requirements and priority areas were needed. She said it was impossible for municipalities to build the entire system on their own.

Non-governmental organisations are calling for a clear system setting out what assistance a family raising a child with a disability can expect from birth until the child’s death, as well as which institutions will be responsible for providing it.

Politicians support the proposal, but no final agreement has been reached. Daiva Ulbinaitė, a member of the parliamentary Homeland Union Lithuanian Christian Democrats faction, said the services available to families after the birth of a child with a disability were either absent or highly fragmented.

She said the framework should cover assistance at different stages of life and be set out either in a special law or through amendments to existing laws.

Tomas Tomilinas, a member of the parliamentary Democratic faction For Lithuania, said the main problem was a lack of coordination between institutions. Families face challenges not only in the social system but also in education, transport and other areas, he said.

The Ministry of Social Security and Labour said it would soon establish a working group bringing together representatives of the responsible ministries and institutions. The group will propose ways to implement the United Nations recommendations more quickly and ensure that the needs of people with disabilities are met.