Last year, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki allocated PLN 1 billion to support persons with disabilities. Deputy Minister Paweł Wdówik informed about the use of those funds. They will go, inter alia, to the „Assistive Technology Rentals” and housing programmes.

Easier access to specialised equipment

Rentals will include assistive devices and technologies for persons with disabilities, with particular consideration given to visual impairment, hearing impairments, motor disabilities and communication disorders. This will be highly specialised equipment, not financed under NFZ.

The objective of the programme is to provide persons with disabilities with access to high-quality technology – said Paweł Wdówik, Government Plenipotentiary for Disabled People. – We allocate PLN 200 million for this programme.

An assistive technology rental will contribute to the fact that persons with disabilities will not have to buy new equipment. This will allow to save funds which can be used for other purposes.

The application for renting technology may be submitted electronically. This will be followed by a meeting with an advisor so as to choose the right equipment. The annual rental fee will be only 1.5-2% of the assistive technology value.

Housing

As part of the „Independence – Activity – Mobility!” programme, three housing programmes are launched. In the first half of February, the results of the Assisted Housing Communities programme will be announced. At the same time, it is to enable accommodation and provision of round-the-clock support services, adapted to the individual needs of residents. For this purpose, the amount of PLN 300 million will be allocated.

The Accessible Housing programme is used to co-finance the exchange of the premises with architectural barriers – said Dorota Habich, Deputy President of the PFRON Board for Programme Affairs, during the briefing. – In turn, the Flat for a Graduate programme will help in renting a flat to a person with disabilities who after graduation is in search of or takes up a job. We allocate PLN 150 million for each of these programmes.

Cars

The last programme as part of the package is used to co-finance the purchase of a car for a person with disabilities.

We have PLN 250 million for this purpose – informed Tomasz Maruszewski, Deputy President of the PFRON Board for Financial Affairs.

He added that although expenditures for all these measures had exceeded PLN 1 billion, PFRON would provide their financing in the following years.