As many as 562 people with disabilities looking for a job applied to the National Employment Agency (ANOFM) in the first nine months of this year. They were classed as jobless, and 154 got employed. The data were presented by the deputy chairwoman of the Parliament’s commission on health, social protection and family Marina Morozova at a public debate entitled “Social inclusion of persons with disabilities", which was hosted by IPN News Agency.
According to the MP, it is gratifying that there is interest from the beneficiaries and that the Agency offers opportunities to people with disabilities. It is necessary for them to be promoted more so that all the people with disabilities who can and want to work have access to these opportunities.
Marina Morozova said that 562 people with disabilities were registered as unemployed in the first nine months of 2024. This is 4.3% of the total number of people registered as unemployed. Also, 154 people with disabilities, or 27% of all the unemployed disabled people, were helped to find a job.
"We are glad that ANOFM has a number of budget lines to help people with disabilities. Here I am also referring to that measure to subsidize the workplace – the company that hires a person with a disability can receive a budget to organize the workplace for the employee with a disability. There are subsidies to cover the transport expenses incurred by people with disabilities to get to work," noted the deputy chairwoman of the Parliament’s commission on health, social protection and family.
The MP said that, unfortunately, the number of people with disabilities who have proper training is very small, but ANOFM offers vouchers for professional training to all the unemployed people. "We have only four beneficiaries who applied for this voucher for professional training. We still have to work in this regard. As a rule, the people with disabilities do not always have a specialty. The measure of granting vouchers to attend a training course will help the people with disabilities to later get a job," said Marina Morozova.
According to the data presented by the MP, there are 162,000 people with disabilities in the Republic of Moldova, of whom 11,000 are children. For both adults and children, the state provides a range of social services. "A lot of work has been done to provide different types of social services, which were developed and approved – regulations, minimum quality standards. Here we are talking about the social service "Protected Housing". There are 37 services with about 200 beneficiaries. At the same time, in most districts there is the social service "Community House", in which there are also beneficiaries and children with disabilities. There are five "Respiro" services that include almost 130 beneficiaries. We have the social service "Foster care for adults" and the social service "Day center for people with disabilities"," pointed out the MP.
The Ministry of Labor and Social Protection has recently extended the "Mobile Team" service to all districts. It is a service consisting of a medical worker, a speech therapist, a physiotherapist and a psychologist who have a car with all the necessary equipment. These specialists go to the home of the person with disabilities to provide social and medical assistance services to this. According to the MP, the problem is that there are not many specialists who provide such services.
"The Ministry has finalized the National Program for the Social Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities and the Action Program for 2025-2029, which is a medium-term public policy document that describes, in fact, the actions that should be taken to ensure the social inclusion of persons with disabilities in Moldova," said Marina Morozova.
The public debate titled "Social inclusion of persons with disabilities" was organized within the project "IPN News Agency for Social Cohesion and Pro-European Moldova", funded by IMS (International Media Support).
