The end of disability certificates and parking cards under the same rules as today. 8 changes are coming

Changes to the regulations concerning disability certificates and parking cards are introduced by the amendment to the Act on Vocational and Social Rehabilitation and Employment of Disabled Persons.

- The "Rehabilitation Act" aims, in particular, to introduce regulations streamlining the work of disability assessment teams and to clarify and organize certain provisions of the current Rehabilitation Act, which results from previous experience in the practical application of the regulations - it was indicated.

The new regulations introduce 8 important changes to disability certificates:

• The draft bill introduces a provision that shortens the period for storing files of adjudication proceedings, including personal data processed by disability adjudication teams, from 50 years to 20 years. After this period, the documentation should be transferred to the state archive. An analogous period (20 years) applies to storing medical documentation. The proposed change results from the postulates of disability adjudication teams that collect the documentation.
• The draft act takes into account the postulates of district and provincial disability adjudication teams regarding the exclusion of the rules of the Public Procurement Law when appointing specialists to adjudication teams to act as adjudicators. The current provisions requiring the application of the Public Procurement Law significantly hinder the employment of specialists (e.g. doctors, psychologists, physiotherapists) and extend the entire procedure, thus affecting the organization of the teams' work and the implementation of statutory tasks related to issuing decisions.
• The draft clarifies the provisions regarding the procedure for considering applications submitted by interested persons in order to obtain a decision on disability or degree of disability. Provisions have been introduced that specify the current rules of the adjudicating procedure, among others, in terms of the deadlines for considering a case in the first and second instance. A maximum 3-month deadline is introduced for considering an application submitted by an interested person in the first instance and a maximum 2-month deadline for considering an appeal in the second instance.

- The changes result from the current rules of the procedure for issuing a ruling, the practice of adjudicating teams and the specifics of the adjudicating procedure (e.g. the need to supplement medical documentation, the need to conduct specialist tests, the availability of doctors with a specific specialization), which is only supplemented in an auxiliary way by the provisions of the Code of Administrative Procedure. The planned change will release the teams from the need to send notifications about the setting of a new deadline for resolving a case when the deadline in the Code of Administrative Procedure is exceeded - it was indicated in the justification.

Additionally, extending the deadline will reduce the number of reminders sent to the provincial disability assessment teams and to the Minister of Family, Labour and Social Policy.

• The draft act on rehabilitation introduces legal solutions that allow for the verification of the validity of a disability certificate and the degree of disability, which will make it easier for people with disabilities to use various types of relief or forms of support, and for employers to verify the status of a disabled person enabling them to receive co-financing for the remuneration of such a person from the State Fund for the Rehabilitation of Disabled Persons. Upon request authenticated with the sign of the disability certificate or the degree of disability and the PESEL number of the person to whom the certificate applies, based on data collected in the Electronic National System for Monitoring Disability Assessments, the district or provincial team will provide free information on the validity of this certificate.

- The proposed mechanism allows for quick confirmation of whether a specific decision is valid. This provision will also apply to providing information on the validity of a parking card and a disabled person's ID card. The solution will be available from the moment it is prepared for service implementation, which will allow for safe planning and carrying out of work in this area (the system will be launched after the announcement in the Official Journal of the Republic of Poland "Monitor Polski" by the minister responsible for computerization in agreement with the minister responsible for social security) - we read in the justification.

• The draft bill introduces changes resulting from the practical application of regulations related to the issuance of decisions determining the level of support need . The draft bill extends the possibility of determining the level of support need from the date of submission of the application to 2025. In the current regulations, such a possibility was specified only for 2024. The change will enable obtaining a support benefit for the period from the date of submission of the application, and not from the date of issuance of the decision determining the level of support need. In connection with the implementation of the new system for determining the level of support need, it is necessary to extend the transitional period also to 2025, taking into account the interests of disabled people, so that they do not suffer the negative effects of prolonged proceedings (in connection with the implementation of the new tasks of the provincial disability assessment teams). - The draft eliminates the provision regarding maintaining the validity of the previous decision determining the level of support need until the next final decision determining the level of support need is issued, but no longer than until the last day of the sixth month following the date specifying this validity (provided that an application for the issuance of another decision is submitted). The introduced regulation is unfeasible due to the inadequacy of IT systems, it was pointed out.
• In connection with maintaining the validity of a disability certificate or a certificate of degree of disability (in accordance with art. 6bb sec. 1 of the Rehabilitation Act, previous certificates remain valid until the date of issue of the next final certificate, but no longer than until the last day of the sixth month following the date determining this validity), the draft act provides for the extension of the validity of the parking card referred to in art. 8 sec. 4 of the Act of 20 June 1997 - Road Traffic Law (Journal of Laws of 2023, item 1047, as amended). However, this provision will apply only from the date of implementation of technical solutions enabling the operation of the central register of parking card holders. Only the launch of the central register of parking card holders will enable verification by authorized bodies (e.g. city guard, police) of the validity of certificates by parking card holders.
• The bill introduces provisions that organize the issue related to the possession by disabled persons of several different decisions on the degree of disability. According to the bill, in the event of issuing a decision on disability or a degree of disability taking into account a change in health status and the degree of difficulty in independent functioning, the district team shall repeal the previously issued decision.

- Providing adjudicating bodies with the clear competence to overturn a previously issued judgment is of great importance because it will allow for the elimination from legal circulation of previous judgments establishing the legal status of a disabled person. In the current legal situation, in the absence of a provision (and therefore a legal norm) allowing the possibility of overturning a previously issued judgment by a body adjudicating on disability, the status of a disabled person may be confirmed on the basis of judgments remaining in legal circulation regulating their rights and obligations in a different way - it was justified.

• The draft act supplements the regulation concerning places where a disabled person with an assistance dog may enter. Places of "collective accommodation" have been added, i.e. guesthouses and recreation centres. The current wording of the provisions of the Rehabilitation Act covers public utility facilities, but this definition does not include, for example, guesthouses and recreation centres. Thus, assistance dogs formally do not have the right to enter guesthouses and recreation centres, e.g. during rehabilitation sessions. The draft act introduces such a possibility.

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