The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications proposed to increase the set maximum prices for care services or assistance

Commercial presentation Update: 05/06/2024 15:13
Issued by: 05/06/2024, 15:13

Prague – The maximum possible prices for nursing services, personal assistance, guiding or respite services and day care centers should increase from July. People who need them for more than 80 hours a month could pay up to 150 crowns per hour instead of a maximum of 135 crowns, i.e. 11 percent more. For less than 80 hours, the hourly payment could increase from 155 to a maximum of 165 crowns, i.e. by about 6.5 percent. The amount for food delivery, laundry or shopping could also increase by ten crowns. An amendment to the decree of the Ministry of Labor takes this into account. Minister of Labor Marian Jurečka (KDU-ČSL) announced the plan a month ago. He pointed out that the care allowances will increase from mid-year. In the past, organizations of the affected have criticized the raising of price limits.

The decree was last changed in January. The highest possible prices for staying in homes, weekly inpatient facilities or asylums, as well as for food, have increased. At the time, the Ministry stated in the documents for the regulation that the costs of operation are increasing and it is necessary to involve families of the needy more in the financing. It expected that an additional 1.7 billion crowns would flow into the facility from clients and their loved ones this year after the limits were increased. The department did not specify how much people could pay for care in the second half of the year after the amount was raised in July. He only wrote that the adjustment will reduce pressure on the state budget and “does not have specific effects” on the disabled.

An hour of caregiving or respite services, personal assistance, social rehabilitation, guiding and reading, support for independent living or in sheltered housing, in a day care center and in a day care center is currently paid at most 155 crowns, if less than 80 hours of help are needed per month . According to the proposal, it should be 165 crowns, i.e. 6.5 percent more. With help over 80 hours a month, the maximum payment would rise from 135 to 150 crowns, i.e. by about 11 percent. Instead of 50 crowns for food delivery or import, 90 crowns for washing and ironing a kilogram of laundry and 160 crowns for making a large purchase, it could be ten crowns more.

“The adjustment is being made in connection with the currently planned increase in the care allowance,” the Ministry of Labor stated in the documents for the decree. It wrote that maintaining price ceilings in social services “does not address the need for higher participation” of clients and their loved ones in financing care.

Organizations of the disabled have criticized price limit increases in the past. They pointed out that the needy can only get a few hours of help a day. Jurečka has already pointed out that from July, contributions will be increased mostly for people in the home environment with a higher need for care. Comments on the proposal can be sent until May 20.

Depending on their dependence on assistance, adults now receive a monthly care allowance of 880, 4,400, 12,800 and 19,200 crowns, and children 3,300, 6,600, 13,900 and 19,200 crowns. According to the amendment on social services under discussion, adults could receive 880, 4,900, 14,800 and 23,000 crowns from the middle of the year, while people with the highest domestic benefit would receive 27,000 crowns. Children are to be paid 3,300, 7,400, 16,100 and 23,000 crowns, and 27,000 crowns for care at home. The state would spend seven billion crowns more annually on contributions.

CR social government disabled seniors