[ad_1]
DEBATE. A society worthy of the name shows compassion for its most vulnerable. They include people with disabilities, a large and diverse collection of human beings. To give them a dignified life, full of opportunities for fulfillment, we cannot tread old and silly furrows.
Now a nationalization of personal assistance is needed. Christian Democrats know this. Liberals (L) should know that too. But there is a risk that liberals, instead of being true to their ideals, will remain hopelessly shackled in the backward shackles of the January deal. Such betrayal will not go unnoticed.
Bengt Westerberg’s initiative
The Law of Support and Service for Certain Disabled Persons (LSS) is from the beginning a liberal initiative and a foster child. It was created at the initiative of the then leader of the People’s Party and Minister of Social Affairs, Bengt Westerberg, in 1994. Since then, many of those who have been entitled to assistance under the LSS have voted for L.
Today, there is no reason for the support vote to continue. Despite his high-flying promises, L has yet to endorse the Christian Democratic Party, Moderate and Left initiative on state leadership for LSS. In June, they also rejected our proposal in the Riksdag for an additional directive regarding all basic needs to be based on full assistance. No one from the party participated in the debate regarding the vote.
Strange disinterest from L
The lack of interest from liberals is surprising and worrying. Especially since now they have to be the guarantors that an investigation into an LSS nationalization will be carried out quickly. That’s the least we should expect from the party.
Different arbitrary assessments are made in different municipalities. Therefore, the risk is imminent that the budget of the municipality, and not the needs of the individual, determines the support it receives.
Especially in a situation where fewer and fewer people are being granted assistance benefits: today just over 2,000 fewer people compared to January 2016. According to the Swedish Social Security Agency, this is partly due to that the basic need for personal hygiene is limited to keeping the body clean of dirt. Wearing deodorant, filing nails, trimming our beards, and putting on makeup – things that most of us would consider our daily personal hygiene routines – are not included.
Avoiding the smell of arm sweat is no longer considered a fundamental right of people with disabilities.
Human rights are not fulfilled
In this way, the basic intention of LSS, the right of people with disabilities to live like everyone else, is removed. Therefore, Swedish jurisprudence is also in conflict with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. And this with the passive support of the liberals. This is, to put it mildly, unworthy of a state ruled by the rule of law like Sweden and unworthy of a party like the Liberals.
Assistance deducted, or in the worst case eliminated, is nothing more than a personal disaster for the disabled person and their family. The current shared leadership of assistance between the state and municipalities enables such disasters.
In different municipalities, different (arbitrary) evaluations are carried out. Therefore, the risk is imminent that the budget of the municipality, and not the needs of the individual, determines the support that it receives. Many do not dare to move from one municipality to another, for fear of losing their personal assistance.
The state must take over
That must not continue.
Therefore, the state must now be the sole director of personal assistance. That is why the Christian Democrats, together with M and V, are now taking a joint initiative in the Riksdag Social Affairs Commission. The issue should be investigated immediately, so that new legislation is enacted before the end of the period. Only then can we guarantee the right to personal assistance, wherever in the country where you reside.
I guess liberals share that opinion.
Who also want to develop, and not just preserve, LSS. Who also understand that all basic needs, not just breathing and tube feeding, must be based on assistance in its entirety. Let even liberals realize that work and parenting should be seen as basic necessities. That they also understand that even people with severe disabilities, like everyone else, feel good and develop from expectations of themselves and their own existence, so that they too can live up to the expectations they have. society has of themselves.
He loses his reason for being
If liberals now don’t support our demand for a nationalization of personal assistance, then they aren’t just betraying their ideals. So you also disappoint the most vulnerable in society. I believe that then it will lose its reason for being and will have nothing to do in the Swedish Parliament in the future.
By David Lega (KD)
MEPs (who depend on personal assistance)
