10 March
2007
Expert committees find the Down Syndrome degree of
disability in children insufficient for the disability
sum of one thousand kunas.
In some Croatian regions, children with Down Syndrome
are denied disability money because expert committees
think that the degree of the damage to their health is
not sufficient for the disability money in the amount of
one thousand kunas a month.
Biggest number of problems in Dalmatia and Zagreb
Children in Dalmatia and Zagreb have the greatest
difficulty achieving the right to the disability money,
while those in other parts of Croatia mostly earn that
right without dealing with any obstacles, warn the
associations of parents of the children with Down
Syndrome in Zagreb and Pula.
Some parents see the problem in the Article 38 of the
Regulations on achieving the social welfare and other
rights in accordance with special regulations, based on
which the children with the so-called minor health damage
are denied disability money.
The Down Syndrome is a genetic disorder caused by the
presence of an extra chromosome, which delays the
children's development and slows down their intellectual
progress. Every 650th child in Croatia is born with Down
Syndrome.
Condition which cannot be treated
This is a condition that cannot be treated, so it is
absurd to deny those children disability money regardless
of the degree of the damage, reminds the Zagreb Down
Syndrome Association president Zrinka Mincir
Sabolcec.
President of the Pula Down Syndrome Centre Branka
Butorac illustrates the absurdity of denying the
disability money with the fact that all the children with
Down Syndrome lose their work capability when they turn
18 and they are awarded a legal guardian by the
state.
Parents' associations say that it would be logical for
those children to be put into a single category and given
disability money until they come of age.
Source
www.javno.com
