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6,500 disabled people participate in rally calling for drastic review of eself-support assistance lawf
Demanding a drastic review of the gself-support assistance law,h some 6,500 disabled people on October 30 took part in a rally at the Hibiya Amphitheatre in Tokyo.
The rally participants adopted a resolution calling for the abolition of the lawfs gbeneficiary-pays systemh and made representations to the Welfare Ministry.
The gself-support assistance lawh put in force in April 2006 requires disabled people to pay 10 percent of the cost of any welfare services they use. This law has not only negatively impacted the living conditions of the disabled people but has also reduced the revenues of workshop facilities for the disabled due to the reduction in the number of users and has forced staff members to leave their jobs.
As part of the rally, a symposium was held in which representatives of political parties (Japanese Communist, Liberal Democratic, Komei, Democratic, and Social Democratic parties) took part. From the JCP, House of Councilors member Kami Tomoko attended.
Kami stressed the urgent need to abolish the gbeneficiary-pays system.h Calling for an earliest possible drastic revision of the law, she said, gThe required budget to abolish the ebeneficiary-pays systemf is 51 billion yen, only 1/60 of the money that the government will pay for the U.S. military realignment plan.h
The ruling LDP and Komei Party representatives, while avoiding touching on calls for the gbeneficiary-pays systemh to be abolished, insisted that the idea of the gself-support assistance lawh is justified, provoking boos from the participants.
gIfm worried about my daughterfs life after my death,h said Hayashi Miyoko, 72, whose 32-year-old daughter is physically disabled because of the aftereffects of cerebral infantile paralysis and who needs assistance in her daily living.
Miyoko said, gUnder the eself-support assistance law,f my daughter has to pay 40,000 to 50,000 yen a month for the use of welfare services out of her disability pension benefit of 80,000 yen. Disabled people like my daughter cannot raise their voices if something happens to them. The government is taking away things they need from those who are unable to complain and are most in need.h
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