Ombudsman Velislava Delcheva sent a recommendation to the Mayor of Sofia Municipality Vasil Terziev and the Chairman of the Sofia Municipal Council Tsvetomir Petrov due to numerous signals and complaints from citizens with disabilities who encounter administrative obstacles in issuing preferential travel cards for public urban transport.
The reason for the referral is also a specific case of a Sofia resident with 80% permanent reduced working capacity, who after a serious heart disease and several life-saving operations cannot receive the urban transport card he is entitled to, although he has a valid expert decision from the National Social Security Institute.
The reason - he is still waiting for an order from the National Social Security Institute to grant a pension, and in the meantime he is forced to pay the full amount value of their trips.
In her recommendation, Delcheva points out that administrative obstacles in issuing preferential travel cards put people with disabilities at a disadvantage and limit their ability to exercise rights guaranteed by national and international legislation.
She emphasizes that institutions must organize their work in such a way that citizens are not deprived of the support they are entitled to due to delayed administrative procedures.
“I would like to remind you that, in the context of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, ratified by the Republic of Bulgaria, responsible state and local authorities should increasingly take appropriate and effective measures to promote, protect and guarantee the full and equal exercise of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by people with disabilities, to promote respect for their inherent human dignity and to support them in their efforts for successful integration into society“, she writes the Ombudsman.
In her recommendation, Velislava Delcheva proposes to review the requirement under Art. 29, para. 1, item 15 that people with disabilities with reduced working capacity from 50% to 70.99% be “receiving a pension“, as it places them in a position of unequal treatment compared to the persons regulated in Art. 29, para. 1, item 16 of the Ordinance of the Sofia Municipal Council on the rules and conditions for travel by public urban transport on the territory of Sofia Municipality, in force from April 5, 2018.
The Public Defender draws attention to the fact that setting a condition for citizens with disabilities to have received an order for granting a pension in order to be able to use preferential transport creates serious difficulties in the period between the issuance of the decision of the TELK and the completion of the pension proceedings. According to Delcheva, this leads to unequal treatment of people who are already recognized as disabled and entitled to the appropriate support.