Blog post by Dr. Magdalena Kocejko (SGH Warsaw School of Economics) and Tomasz Przybysz-Przybyszewski (Polish Disability Forum).
Unfulfilled promises
The battle for the Personal Assistance Act has been going on in Poland for years. Although this topic was one of the flagship commitments of the government coalition that has been in power since the end of 2023, enshrined in the famous ‘100 concretes for 100 days’ (Editors note: this refers to Prime Minister Donald Tusk promise to implement 100 policies in 100 days) and in the coalition agreement, the law has not been enacted to this day – despite the passage of time and numerous declarations.
The election program promised that every person with disabilities would have access to the support of a personal assistant and that the Act would be submitted within the first 100 days of government.
Meanwhile, as practice shows, political declarations have proved much easier than real action.
Support for the chosen ones
Currently, the main form of personal assistance available is the one implemented in 2019 within the framework of the government program ‘Personal Assistant for a Person with Disability’, financed by the Solidarity Fund. In the 2024 edition, the program has been allocated 760 million złoty for local governments and 225 million złoty for NGOs.
However, even such large sums do not translate into real accessibility to these services: according to the Supreme Audit Office, only 0.6% of persons with disabilities benefited from the program in 2020-2021. In practice, this means that the vast majority of those in need are left without support, and the personal assistance service in Poland is neither universal nor guaranteed.
Limits on hours of support are very strict. They are attributed depending on the ‘degree’ of disability, but the maximum can be 840 hours per year for a person with a significant degree of disability, which amounts to just under 2.5 hours per day on average. In addition, the understanding of some local authorities is that personal assistance is just another version of care services aimed primarily at seniors and has little to do with realising the right to independent living.
Meanwhile, it is worth emphasising that the adoption of systemic solutions for personal assistance is envisaged by the government’s Strategy for Persons with Disabilities 2021-2030’. In addition, in recent years, within the framework of the project “Active Disabled – tools for supporting the independence of persons with disabilities”, a ‘Standard for personal assistance for person with a disability’, that is in line with the Convention, was created. The Standard should become the basis for the Personal Assistance Act and the programs implemented.
Activity calendar
Persons with disabilities in Poland have not been passive in waiting for the Personal Assistance Act – on the contrary, they have been actively pursuing their rights and reminding those in power that personal assistance is a key service, without which independent living is out of the question.
On 15 April 2023, the community of persons with disabilities, their families and allies protested in front of the Presidential Palace, as the Office of the President was the first to undertake the creation of a personal assistance act. Unfortunately, the final draft presented did not guarantee the possibility for persons with disabilities to self-determine the shape and scope of the service, despite good intentions.
On 13 May 2023, the aforementioned community organised a symbolic “funeral march”. The funeral procession marched in Warsaw with a coffin from the Castle Square to the Presidential Palace, demanding the right to independent living and access to a stable and responsive personal assistance service.
On 19 May 2023, Waldemar Różanowski, an activist and personal assistance user, asked about the personal assistance act to Donald Tusk, the current Prime Minister, at a meeting in Kartuzy during the parliamentary election campaign. In response, he was told that financial help cannot be the only form of state support for persons with disabilities and that personal assistance guaranteed by the state is necessary ‘so that they get the help that will enable them to live a normal life and not only survive in a confined space’. The future Prime Minister’s words have gone viral, although success is a long way off.
Faced with the misfire of the presidential draft (which eventually found its way through the Sejm, but ended up in the freezer) the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy finally started work on its own draft law on personal assistance, in line with the Convention. As the topic stalled at a point, a protest was held outside the Prime Minister’s Chancellery on 3 December 2024, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, during which persons with disabilities and their allies demanded the enactment of a Convention-compliant personal assistance act. With slogans such as ‘We want to live, not just survive’ and ‘Personal assistance is the best investment’, they demanded that the law be passed quickly, in line with the promises made by those in power.
However, protests are not everything. There was an appeal signed by almost 6,000 people, followed by a petition, which gathered more than 20,000 signatures. The National Consultative Council for Persons with Disabilities made its appeal to the Prime Minister. Personal assistance users, their family members, allies, friends, activists, as well as NGOs published thousands of posts on social media, constantly reminding politicians of their promises. Many articles were written, and the topic was featured on radio and television. There were also many meetings with politicians and anyone who could influence the acceleration of the act.
Hope for change
As a result of public pressure, the Personal Assistance Act saw the light of day in December 2024 and underwent extensive public consultation. The disability community assessed the draft as groundbreaking and responsive to their key needs.
It valued the ability to freely choose the service provider and assistant, as well as the option to employ an assistant themselves, which increases control over their own lives. The exclusion of immediate family members from the assistant’s role is important (albeit worrying for some parents and carers) andhelps to reduce dependence on informal care. The introduction of a personal budget mechanism, counselling support; and supervision for assistants was also appreciated, as were the relatively high rates of their salaries and the possibility for them to carry out nursing and medical activities.
The Act implies that there is no charge for the service and that the person with a disability can decide on the extent of the service, which is in line with the idea of independent living. However, there has been criticism that the limits on hours of support are too low – currently a maximum of 240 hours per month for adults and 80 hours for young people aged 13 to 18 – which is insufficient for many people who require intensive daily support to lead truly independent lives. Despite these reservations, the project offers hope for a real breakthrough and a dignified life for persons with disabilities.
But the project is stuck
More than four months have passed since the publication of the draft law. Despite completed public consultations and assurances from the Government Plenipotentiary for Persons with Disabilities that everything is on track, the act is stuck in the government corridors and has still not reached the Sejm.
The topic is low on the agenda and re-publicising it is difficult at a time of dynamic socio-political change, linked, for example, to security and militarisation issues in the face of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and the weakening US support for NATO’s eastern flank. It does not help that most decision-makers do not understand what the right to independent living is and think of persons with disabilities in a charitable and paternalistic current. This results in them being treated as passive beneficiaries of aid rather than subjects with the right to make their own decisions.
As we write this text, the disability community is preparing for another protest to influence the acceleration of the introduction of the Personal Assistance Act in Poland. The protest is to take place on 13 May in front of the Prime Minister’s Chancellery.
Let’s hope there will be no need to organise another one.