JCP and citizens group in Tokyo call for welfare program to be maintained

In the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly, 15 Japanese Communist Party members together with a member supported by a citizens group introduced a bill to maintain the welfare benefit program for elderly people, a program which the metropolitan government decided to end at the end of this March.

Watanabe Yasunobu of the JCP Metropolitan Assembly Members Group at a press conference said that the benefit is a lifeline for bedridden elderly people and their family members, and that they desperately need the money.

The benefit for elderly people was established in 1973 to provide several tens of thousands of yen to bedridden elderly people who need special care in their daily life.

In 2000, the metropolitan government led by Governor Ishihara Shintaro, jointly with the Liberal Democratic Party and the Komei Party, decided to abolish the financial assistance system in March 2003 as part of the "welfare reform" plan.

They also decided to gradually decrease the amount of the benefit so that the present amount for people 70 and over is less than one fourth of that in 2000. (end)