The Ombudsman on the Status of Persons with Reduced Ability to Work

The transformation of the institutional system in charge of gauging reduced ability to work and establishing eligibility for benefits was not properly prepared. The new administrative bodies and their staff had not been prepared for the amount of cases they had to handle. The infrastructural background was not fully ready, either, and the lack of medical experts made things even worse. László Székely, Commissioner for Fundamental Rights, has requested the Minister of Human Resources to tackle these problems.

According to the act on the benefits of persons with reduced ability to work, invalidity pensions, accident disability pensions, rehabilitation allowances, regular social allowances, temporary allowances and miners' health damage allowances may not be granted as of 1 January 2012. Instead, rehabilitation benefits were introduced as income support for those fit for rehabilitation and employment, and invalidity benefits were introduced as income support for those unfit for rehabilitation and employment. The transformation of the allowance system entailed the transformation of the institutional system, as well.

The Commissioner for Fundamental Rights received several complaints recently, mainly regarding the prolonged proceedings of the National Office for Rehabilitation and Social Affairs (Nemzeti Rehabilitációs és Szociális Hivatal – NRSZH) and the County Government Offices' administrative bodies in charge of rehabilitation. Instead of the sixty days stipulated by the law, the evaluation of benefit applications would take six months in average, in some cases a year or even more. NRSZH and the competent administrative bodies mentioned the lack of medical experts as justification for such delays. They also informed the Ombudsman that they had not been able to call in EU subsidies for the IT system servicing the new administrative structure for almost a year and that they had to operate with a staff significantly smaller than necessary.

The investigation of the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights has established that the way the institutions concerned were applying the law was not uniform, either. There were cases when they had not provided for paying interest for default or, e.g., for advance payments to the applicants. Paying an advance on the benefits is indispensable by its nature, provided that the applicant meets the eligibility criteria. The lack thereof infringes upon the rights to fair procedure and social security.

The Ombudsman has discovered that, notwithstanding the prolonged proceedings, the authorities were able to keep the administrative deadlines because consulting with foreign authorities, requesting missing documents from applicants or "establishing the facts of the matter" are not counted in the official administration period. The latter would usually be mentioned in the resolutions without going into details. It makes virtually impossible to follow the evolution of the case, the proceedings are not transparent, the clients would not know whether or not they are entitled to the interest for default. Proceedings taking several month place great burdens on the applicants with serious health problems, usually living on minimal income or, in some cases, without any benefits.

Ombudsman László Székely has concluded that the transformation of the institutional system in charge of gauging reduced ability to work and establishing eligibility for benefits was not properly prepared. The new administrative bodies and their staff were not prepared for the amount of cases they had to handle, and the infrastructural background was not fully ready, either. The lack of medical experts made things even worse. Prolonged proceedings make worse the situation of tens of thousands of people, thousands of them living with disability, thus infringing their fundamental rights to fair procedure and social security. The Commissioner for Fundamental Rights has requested the Minister of Human Resources to tackle these problems and asked the heads of the rehabilitation authorities to pay, as far as possible, greater attention to the enforcement of the client' rights, to the proper application of the law and to the earliest and fair completion of all cases.