Since January 1, 2013, the pension advance for ongoing disability pension proceedings has been limited to 2 months (from 2013: 3 months), even if a medical examination has not yet taken place or if appeals are made against notices or court decisions. Potentially disabled people have to show themselves “fit for work” and “willing to work” after 2 or 3 months - that is, they must be available to the employment agency and AMS measures - although later (which can take years) it can turn out that the person concerned is unable to work .
In Great Britain and Germany there are already the first deaths of people who have simply been denied the incapacity for work and who have died in forced work programs under threat of deprivation of income (withdrawal ban)!
Active unemployed Austria therefore demands the immediate withdrawal of this regime that threatens our existence!
The temporary disability pension will be abolished from 1.1.2014. Instead, disabled people who have not been awarded an indefinite disability pension (around 70% so far) either have to undergo medical rehabilitation for around 6 weeks on a third-party order or undergo professional retraining at the AMS and then show that they are fully able to work again, even if they are not really so !
A “health road” was set up as the central point for determining the ability to work or disability, which is characterized primarily by low budgeting for each report and a correspondingly poor quality of the reports.
The Ministry of Social Affairs expects savings of 700 million euros within 10 years. So when the temporary disability pension is abolished, the main priority is to reduce government spending at the expense of the weakest!
Even in the previous legal regulation, it would have been possible to create sufficient rehabilitation offers and thus to implement the principle of “rehabilitation before retirement”.
The new system introduced by the Ministry of Social Affairs is characterized by massive coercion and the associated deterioration in the rights of those affected.
The General Assembly of the AK Wien therefore calls for the development of a system that guarantees the following principles, with the involvement of the people affected:
- Principle of voluntariness instead of compulsory planned economy measures: Those affected know best when they need which support.
- Right to protection from forced treatment in violation of human rights. Right to free choice of doctor or choice of the appropriate rehabilitation facility
- Possibility of checking the expert opinion of the health route through a trustworthy institution.
- Pension advance during the entire procedure for the recognition of the disability pension, in order to prevent disabled persons from further harming their health through compulsory AMS measures and through being forced to take jobs that they cannot do.
- As a contribution to the fight against poverty according to the EU Agenda 2020: No more discrimination against recipients of the compensation allowance: No deductions (around 50%!) For additional earnings below the marginal earnings threshold. This improves the chances of rehabilitation and also promotes re-entry into working life.
- More flexible transitions when re-entering professional life, extension of the option to return to two years in the event of a failed re-entry into retirement.
- When returning to work, full crediting of the periods in the disability / disability / disability pension as replacement pension times to increase the incentive to “reintegrate” into working life.
- Establishing quality standards for medical reports in court proceedings. Establishment of training standards for court experts and obligation for ongoing training. Random review of court opinions by independent and competent scientific institutions. Deletion of reviewers from the reviewer list whose reviews do not meet the quality standards.
- Objective selection of court experts by an independent body instead of being arbitrarily appointed by judges who keep “their” personal experts.
- Abolition of § 42 ASGG: According to this provision, the insurance carrier can provide the expert with a higher fee than provided for in the Fee Claims Act after submitting his report. This power of one party to give an extra bonus to experts leads to their structural bias. Section 42 of the ASGG is incompatible with the constitutional principle of equality and the right to a fair trial under Article 6 of the ECHR.
- Right to a second expert opinion: At present, a judge can raise the information provided by his expert reporter without regard to contrary findings and expert reports submitted by the pension seeker as "court truth". In these cases, we demand the right to a further assessment by an independent expert appointed not by the negotiating judge, but on a random or rotating basis.
- Abolition of § 42 ASGG: According to this provision, the insurance carrier can provide the expert with a higher fee than provided for in the Fee Claims Act after submitting his report. This power of one party to give an extra bonus to experts leads to their structural bias. Section 42 of the ASGG is incompatible with the constitutional principle of equality and the right to a fair trial under Article 6 of the ECHR.
- According to Bruno Kreisky's motto, to flood all areas of life with democracy. Establishment of representative bodies at the pension insurance institutions and at the rehabilitation facilities with full information rights.