Armenian government to shift to new criteria to decide disability degree

YEREVAN, November 6. / ARKA /. In 2014 the Armenian government will shift to new criteria to decide whether to recognize a person as disable or not, deputy labor and social affairs minister Jemma Baghdasaryan said Tuesday.

In late 2011, the government adopted a decision to review the order of defining disability degree. In accordance with that decision, the disabled persons with a low degree of loss of efficiency, will be provided with jobs, but will stop receiving disability allowances. According to the document, the disability will be assigned to those who have the appropriate percentage of loss of efficiency, which will be used to decide the disability degree.

Baghdasaryan said after shifting to new criteria for the definition of disability the government will be faced with new employment "challenges."

"So we have to be prepared for that. We have to have programs that will provide employment to f persons with disabilities ", she said.

She said the disabled prefer to have jobs rather than to receive disability benefits, but the responsibility to provide them with decent jobs should be taken by the government.

She said the government is implementing a series of programs to promote employment of disabled people, in particular, it pays to employers part of the wages they pay to their disabled. It also funds training courses for persons with disabilities.

She said the government is elaborating a draft law on the rights and social inclusion of disabled persons, which aims to provide employment to the disabled, including quotas for employers when employing persons with disabilities.

According to the latest data from the State Employment Service of Armenia, of 170,000 registered disabled persons, 90,000 are of working age who have certain job skills, but are jobless.  -0-