Legal capacity has no impact on the right to receive allowance for personal assistance. This is the main message of the judgment of the Regional Court in Banská Bystrica in the matter of not granting allowance for personal assistance to a client with a mental disability, whom we had assisted with the preparation of the lawsuit. The financial allowance for personal assistance is one of the most powerful tool of independing living for persons with disabilities in Slovakia. Yet, the approach of authorities deciding on its award is not always straightforward.
Together with SOCIA – Social Reform Foundation we have therefore supported clients who were refused allowance for personal assistance despite having fullfilled the legal criteria. In January 2021, the Regional Court in Banská Bystrica decided in favour of one of our clients (judgement no. 30Sa/9/2020). The court held that:
Deprivation or restriction of legal capacity, or mental disability as such, cannot be a reason not to grant the allowance for personal assistance. The objective of personal assistance, that is the support of social inclusion and independent living, may differ from case to case and depends on needs of the individual person.
We want to thank SOCIA – Social Reform Foundation for having supported the case and our lawyers Maroš Matiaško and Adam Máčaj for having prepared the lawsuit.
