Japan Press Weekly

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2007 September 26 - October 2 [WELFARE]

90 percent of facilities for disabled persons call for abolition of beneficiary-pays principle

Nearly 90 percent of facilities for disabled persons are demanding that the government abolish a system requiring facility users to pay for their use of services under the disabled person self-support law put in force in April 2006.

At a news conference in the Health Ministry on September 26, Japanese Communist Party Policy Commission Chair Koike Akira and House of Representatives member Takahashi Chizuko made public the survey conducted recently by the JCP Dietmembers’ Group and stressed the need to revoke the “beneficiary-pays” principle established in the law.

This survey, the second one that the JCP conducted, was based on responses from 172 facilities in 40 prefectures that are providing services for a total of 5,798 people with disabilities.

The survey revealed that after the law was enforced, 60 percent of facility users experienced an increase of more than 10,000 yen in their monthly payment. Koike said, “The increase in their burdens has discouraged disabled persons from using services, thus bringing about a markedly adverse effect on disabled persons.”

Because many disabled persons refrain from using services, those facilities’ income has sharply decreased. Koike said, “Cutbacks in services and wages have adversely affected both users and facility staff. In those facilities that responded to our survey, nearly 20 percent of staff members quit their jobs in the past year.”

Citing the fact that the struggles by people with disabilities and their families as well as public criticism have forced some members of the ruling parties to call for revision of the self-support law, Koike demanded that the government carry out a fact-finding survey and drastically revise the law, including revocation of the “beneficiary-pays” principle.