People with disabilities and families of children with developmental disabilities held a protest rally in Zagreb's St. Mark's Square on Thursday, demanding the passing of a new bill on personal assistance which would regulate state-funded allowances for people caring full-time for disabled persons.

About a hundred people showed up on Thursday in front of the government building, demanding improvements in legislation regulating assistance to disabled people and their carers. An association of families with disabled children Sjena (“Shadow”) said that they have been waiting for this legislation for decades now, and added that it is finally the time “to say enough is enough.”

Neww bills regulating this area have been in the works for 14 years. Although scheduled to be passed earlier this year, the adoption of the latest bill has been postponed until 2023.

According to the bill, parents who are officially designated as parent-carers will lose their right to a state-funded personal assistant. That means only single parents will retain that right. In addition, people with disabilities and their families will no longer be able to choose an assistant on their own, which they say is essential. Instead, a personal assistant would be assigned to them by the government.

They also oppose the proposal to immediately stop paying out state allowance to parent-carers after the death of the disabled child they cared for.

Ahead of the protest, the Minister for Labor, Family, and Social Policy, Marin Piletic, said that he understood the reasons for the protest, but added that “their skepticism does not mean that the law will not be passed, and that they will not retain their right to all services.”

He said that under the new bill some 9,000 people would be assigned personal assistants in July next year, more than double from about 4,000 today.