’Personal Assistance Budget’ for people with disabilities wins prize

Every year, a prize is given to the best idea that improves the inclusion of people with disabilities. The prize is awarded by ‘Zero Project’.  This is an initiative that wants to improve inclusion of people with disabilities. In 2015, Flanders has won this prize. Flanders is a region in Belgium; it has its own government. The Flemish government has won because it created the ‘Personal Assistance Budget’ (PAB). Within this system, money is taken from care institutions, and instead given directly to all people with disabilities living in Flanders. Each month, every person with a disability would get 300 Euros, meant for buying individual care and practical help. In that way, people could decide for themselves what sort of care they get, instead of letting the institutions decide. This should allow people with disabilities to be more independent. However, not everybody likes this the PBA. Some organizations have said that 300 Euros per month is not enough money to buy the same kind of care given by the institutions. A Flemish organization of parents from children with disabilities has even taken the case to court.

During the yearly award ceremony of ‘Zero Project’, an initiative that strives for a world in which people with disabilities are fully included, the Flemish region in Belgium won the prize of ‘best policy’ for the creation of the Personal Assistance Budget (PAB).

With this new decree, care institutions for people with disabilities are given less resources. Instead, every person with a disability will receive 300 euros per month in order to make independent decisions on which care they would like to receive.
However, not every concerned party agrees with the Personal Assistance Budget.
The association ‘Iedereen bezorgd’, for instance, which represents parents of children with disabilities in Flanders, went to the Constitutional Court in an attempt to stop the Personal Assistance Budget Decree (PAB) from being put into practice.
It is the first time parents of children with disabilities take such a step in Belgium. Although the parents applauded the initiative of Flemish Minister of Wellbeing Jo Vandeurzen, they also said that the monthly allowance of 300 euros is not enough to cover all of the necessary expenses.
The PAB is meant for people with disabilities to become more independent, and also to tackle the enormous waiting lists of  placements within a care institution.

To find out more about the Personal Assistance Budget, click here. (English)
To read the first original article, click here. (only available in Dutch)
To read the second original article, click here. (only available in Dutch)