Nearly 2,000 people are still without personal assistance

Richard Benckert Blomberg turned 21 years old yesterday. It's a little unclear if he himself knows what it means. But he likes to get packages. He will receive children's books, pens, simple hushållsprylar.

His parents Kerstin Benckert and Mats Blomberg had rather seen that their gift to him has been that he got back the personal assistance he lost in the summer of 2016. However, the number that ”all who are entitled to assistance shall receive it” stays in the vårbudgeten at 150 million.

It is money that was in M and KD's januaribudget and they will go to in support of persons who need help with breathing and feeding.

" considering how it sounded before the election, we had hoped that it would happen something more already today. Money you shoot to now is far too little – and it still leaves almost a couple of thousand people in need of assistance without, says Kerstin Benckert.

had Richard and his brother Robert, 23, overall, the right to 600 hours of personal assistance a month, because of their severe disabilities. Both brothers are severely autistic and have developmental disorders. Over night in the summer of 2016, they lost all right to the state personal assistance – and they were far from alone.

up Until 2017 was of 1,400 persons who were previously granted the assistance of it. The parents then got to hear from the administrators at the social Insurance office that it was ”new directive”. It was about the then government's written directions which said that ”the increase in the number of assistanstimmar must decrease”. It was at the turn of the year 2015-2016.

the Insurance cost for personal assistance is reduced by almost four billion, and the debate raged.

at the end of the 2018/2019 has 1,700 people have been of assistance, if you're counting up the number to today it involves around 2,000 people. In the decisions of the social Insurance refers to the guiding judgments of the Supreme administrative court, one of the crucial judges, that are the basis for current practices, handed down in 2009, several years before the thumbscrews were drawn to.

the president of the RBU, the Swedish national association for disabled children and young people, shares the view that the 150 million that are now presented as a bet is a trickle that will get to the part:

" of course It is good that there is a deal between the government, the Centre party and the Liberals which so clearly writes that ”all who are entitled to assistance shall receive it”.

– the only Question is how it should go and who should decide who has the right. The funds now added is better than nothing, but it does not solve the problem for all those who lost their assistance, " says Maria Persdotter.

Pia Steensland, KD's spokesperson in the LSS-questions, mean that it is also of great importance that the text of the law that applies to those with need of support for breathing and tube feeding becomes so sharp that the money is actually used – and that there are no demarcation disputes in the cases, which she fears.

The LSS study presented in the January changes, according to the ngos, nothing for those who lost their assistance. And januariavtalet likely to just be words, " says Kerstin Benckert, mother of Richard and Robert:

– Beautiful cast has just been to vague wording on new investigations.

lost to her assistance, took the family's struggle to get everyday life to function. Robert has received a place in a group home where the parents spend many hours in the week when the accommodation is not suitable for his needs. Rickard goes in a special school and lives at home. Kerstin and dad Mats Blomberg, who are divorced, take turns to take care of him every other week in the couple's former joint home.

The previous 600 hours of personal assistance per month have been replaced with 80 hours of so-called escorting and avlösarservice in municipal management.

– It is extremely difficult to get everything to go together. The whole of our life is spent to arrange for our sons, " says Kerstin Benckert.

Bengt Eliasson, the member of parliament for the Liberals, who pushed the issue of reinforced LSS in government meetings, believes that the situation for those who lost their assistance is acute:

"We must quickly come back with the response," he says while his party now agreed to a new assistansutredning shall be made and, therefore, it will take until 2021 before it can be new legislation and new practices to follow for social Insurance.

stresses that the 150 million for those who have the need for assistance with breathing and tube feeding are only a first step.

– We agree to investigate assistance for self-care and a tapered parenthood, this for even more people to get the right to assistance. How much you want to, it is not possible to solve it in a quarter of an hour, it required a change in the law, " she says.

Kerstin Benckert think it's strange. The agency's assessments became harder after the much talked about general development in december 2015 – but that the law had been changed.

– Should it then not enough with a new appropriation directions from the government to those who have lost their assistance to get it back?

It rejects Lena Hallengren:

Had it just been hanging out in a directions we'd been able to act faster, but they do not control our legislation. When a new law is in place, those who consider themselves to be in need of personal assistance, and apply for it again, " she says.