Systematic support for activation facilities

The amount of co-financing for the costs of an annual stay of one person in WTZ has been growing steadily since 2015: from PLN 14,796 to PLN 18,096 in 2019, PLN 20,496 in 2020, PLN 21,696 in 2021.

According to the regulation signed by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, the amount of co-financing for the costs of an annual stay of one participant in WTZ will increase in 2022 and in the following years to the amount of PLN 24,096. According to previous assumptions, it was to be PLN 22,896.

In the case of ZAZ, the amount of co-financing was increased from PLN 18.5 thousand to PLN 22 thousand in 2019. This has been the first increase since a decade. In 2019, this amount was increased once again to PLN 22,750. Then, the support increased to PLN 25,000 in 2020 and 2021.

As from the new year and in the coming years, the support for these institutions will amount to PLN 27.5 thousand, instead of the planned amount of PLN 25 thousand.

- We are constantly working on improving the living conditions of persons with disabilities and on increasing their occupational activation. Higher subsidies for WTZ and ZAZ supporting persons with disabilities are a step in this direction – says the Secretary of State and Government Plenipotentiary for Disabled People, Paweł Wdówik.

How to create WTZ and ZAZ?

Units which are going to create WTZ must submit to a district family support centre (PCPR), competent for the registered office of the workshop, an application for co-financing the costs of creating and activities of WTZ from the State Fund for Rehabilitation of Disabled People. The application should be accompanied by, inter alia, a project to create a workshop, an application for at least 20 candidates for participants in WTZ specifying the degrees and types of their disabilities, a plan of the workshop’s activity and estimates of both the costs of creating the workshop and the annual operating costs.

The maximum co-financing from PFRON funds for the costs of creating WTZ amounts to 70% of these costs, while for the operating costs, including those resulting from the increased number of participants in WTZ – 90% of these costs.

Units applying for the creation of ZAZ must submit an application to the Marshal of the Voivodeship and conclude an agreement for co-financing from PFRON funds. The maximum amount of co-financing for the creation of ZAZ may not exceed 65% and the co-financing for operation – 90%.

WTZ and ZAZ mean the support for thousands of persons with disabilities

Occupational therapy workshops are institutions providing persons with disabilities, who are unable to work, with a possibility of social and occupational rehabilitation. Therapeutic and workshop activities are organised for them. In turn, vocational development centres are places where persons with disabilities learn not only to perform the duties entrusted to them, but also to manage in everyday life and cooperate with other people.

In 2020, there were 726 occupational therapy workshops, which were used by 28.1 thousand persons with disabilities. In 2020, a total amount of PLN 574.2 million was allocated from PFRON funds for their functioning – about PLN 184.8 million more than in 2015.

In turn, at the end of June 2021, employment in vocational development centres amounted to 7,735 persons in total, including 5,921 persons with disabilities. The share of persons with disabilities in total employment in vocational development centres was 76.5%.

In 2020, the operating costs of 126 ZAZ were co-financed for the amount of more than PLN 146.6 million, including PLN 146.5 million for 123 vocational development centres established in previous years and nearly PLN 59 thousand for 3 newly created ones.

In the period under discussion, three organisers received an amount of more than PLN 2 million for the creation of new vocational development centres.

When compared to 2019, PFRON’s expenditure on the activities of ZAZ increased by more than PLN 23 million, and when compared to 2018 by more than PLN 54 million.