 Disabled people oppose law change forcing them to pay more A bill to change the law on disabled people is now under discussion in the Diet. In the name of supporting handicapped people's self-help, the bill, if enacted, will force them as beneficiaries to pay for services they use. However, disabled people are worried that without income security they will be discouraged from using social services, if they are forced to pay more. An estimate shows that some will have to pay more charges for services more than what they receive in disability pension benefits. The Japan Council for the Disabled on May 12 in Tokyo organized a rally to discuss the bill. About 6,600 people, including those on wheelchairs or with canes for the blind, from throughout Japan attended the rally. Thirteen major organizations concerned with disabled people also took part. In a symposium in which five ruling and opposition party representatives were present, Japanese Communist Party Upper House member Koike Akira criticized the bill, saying, "Introducing the system of fees for services according to benefits fundamentally destroys the policy for the disabled and obstructs their self-help." A 51-year-old woman with polio said that she will have to pay 30,000 yen per month for the use of a sheltered workshop where she is paid 10,000 yen a month for her manual labor. She asked, "Must disabled people pay money to work?" - Akahata May 13, 2005 |