14.06.2024

UNEMPLOYMENT AMONG PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES REACHES 90 PERCENT

Employers should be encouraged, not obliged, to hire people with disabilities, commented the chairman of the National Alliance for Social Responsibility, Georgi Georgiev.

Yesterday he opened the national forum of social services with international participation, dedicated to innovation and good practices in this sector. The conference brought together more than 200 specialists from all over the country, as well as representatives of the Ministry of Labor and its structures. The guests, among whom is the president of the European Association of Service Providers for People with Disabilities, Jim Crow, were greeted by the regional governor of Varna, Andriyana Andreeva, and the mayor, Blagomir Kotsev.

The current normative documents that regulate employment support for people with disabilities are ineffective, pointed out Georgiev. According to him, the quotas for hiring such employees, set for employers, do not work. Unemployment among people with disabilities reaches 90 percent, Georgiev also said.

According to him, it would be good to think in the direction of changing social services in such a way that they create the skills and attitude of users to work, and not to be just passive recipients. Georgiev added that it is necessary to increase services for people who, in addition to social problems, also have health problems.

In the country, there are still imbalances between the regions in terms of the number and types of social services offered, commented the chairman of the National Alliance for Social Responsibility. In his words, the development of the national map of social services, as well as the determination of the financial standards for the next year, are extremely important in this regard. However, in recent years, the social services sector has been one of the successfully developing ones in our country, pointed out Georgiev. According to him, this was helped by the changes in the regulations, the implementation of which may cause difficulties, but at least it helps to enrich the system.