The House of Peoples of the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted the Law on Uniform Principles and Framework of Material Support for Persons with Disabilities, the so-called lex specialis, which represents the first law of this kind in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
This law establishes a systemic framework for material support for persons with disabilities, ensuring long-term financial sustainability of benefits, as well as the principles and frameworks of material support for persons with disabilities that arise, in accordance with constitutional competences, from cantonal-level regulations.
"After months of discussions, consultations and media appearances with representatives of organizations representing people with disabilities, a consensus has been reached on this law. While it may not be an ideal solution, it represents a realistic and sustainable model at this time and brings long-term benefits for people with disabilities and the social protection system as a whole," said Federal Minister of Labor and Social Policy Adnan Delić.
This law introduces a new model for adjusting benefit bases, i.e. the bases will be adjusted according to the same principle as the bases for civilian victims of war and veterans, which will ensure a stable increase in benefits once a year.
The law also provides for verification of the right to care and assistance from others and orthopedic allowance, with the aim of preventing abuses that have been observed in the past period, especially during 2023, when a sharp increase in the number of beneficiaries of these rights was recorded. The goal is not to deny rights to those who really need them, but to ensure that the system is fair and accessible to those who need it most.
The adoption of this law comes at a time when allocations for people with disabilities have significantly increased. Namely, until 2023, the base for disability benefits was fixed at 401 KM for 13-14 years, and total allocations amounted to 139 million KM per year.
With the amendments to the current law in January 2023, the maximum amount of the benefit was increased by 70 percent, from 401 KM to 728 KM, which required an additional 80 million KM in the budget. This increased the total allocation for disability benefits in 2023 to 220 million KM.
In 2024, an additional 41 million KM was provided, increasing the total allocation to 260 million KM. Another 20 million KM is planned for 2025, bringing the total allocation for disability benefits to 280 million KM, and the adopted amendment, which takes over the new formula for adjusting the bases, adds another 5 million KM, or 285 million, which is 146 million KM more than in the period up to 2022.
Although allocations for disability benefits have increased significantly in the past three years, other social benefits have mostly remained stagnant or increased minimally. If the current system of tying the disability benefit base to the minimum wage were to continue, in the next period the disability benefit base would increase to 800 KM, and the maximum amount would reach 1,176 KM.
Such an increase would mean that total allocations for disability benefits would increase to 490 million KM per year, which would represent an unsustainable burden on the budget of an additional 210 million KM and jeopardize the financing of other social benefits, including veterans' benefits, child allowance and other forms of social assistance, as well as benefits for persons with disabilities themselves.
"The reform of the social protection system is not just a matter of political will or our wishes, but of responsible planning and long-term protection of all beneficiaries. If we all want a secure and stable system of disability benefits, then this law had to be adopted," said Minister Delić.
Due to the adoption of the aforementioned amendment, the Law will be harmonized in the House of Representatives, hopefully at the first next session, and then eight days after its publication in the Official Gazette, we expect the entry into force of this Law.
