Today we met with Minister Pawel Wdowik, government plenipotentiary for the disabled. - We are designing a new system. Item 7 as we currently understand it will not be in it," says the minister.

The meeting dealt with a petition on the lack of objectivity of point 7 in disability evaluations. The granting of this point determines whether a disabled child will be supported. And whether the parent will have the opportunity to give up work and take care of the child.

Point 7 is a problem nationwide. Decisions of disability commissions are biased and unpredictable. The same functioning child on the autism spectrum, in one commission may receive this point, and in another it will be taken away from him.

At the JiM Foundation, we prepared a petition on this issue together with parents of dependent autistic children. We published it under the slogan "Don't take my mother away from me." The petition was met with great interest. In a short period of time it was signed by nearly 15,000 people from all over Poland. We handed the petition to Minister Wdowik on May 26 - exactly on Mother's Day. As a result, the minister invited us to a meeting.

- The topic is very important to us. We know that the current system is inefficient," assured Minister Wdowik. He declared swift action.

The minister said he had ordered training for provincial commissions on the specifics of diagnosing people on the autism spectrum. He also promised to check whether there are differences between provinces in diagnosing autistic people. For example, whether in any province children on the autism spectrum are not discriminated against when awarding a score of 7.

In the long term, Item 7 and the problem associated with it are not supposed to exist at all.

- We are designing a new disability adjudication system," Minister Wdowik informed.

The system is to be based on objective criteria that determine a person's functioning in 4 areas: education, independence, in the social area and (for adults) in the professional area.

- It is clear to me, but also to the prime minister, that the new system will be fairer and that it will not mean any savings," the minister said.

A draft of the new system is expected to be ready after the vacations. It will later go through public consultations. It is expected to be adopted by the Sejm early next year.

- We positively welcome these declarations. We will keep our word," says Tomasz Michalowicz, president of the JiM Foundation.

JiM Foundation

The content of the petition can be read here: www.jim.org/apel.

If you want to make a financial contribution to the petition campaign - you can do it here: www.jim.org/niezabierajmimamy/.