Romanian Govt Limits Loans For The Disabled On Abuses

The government on Tuesday amended the Law 448/2006 protecting and promoting the rights of people with disabilities.

The act replaces the idiom “purchasing a single means of transportation” with “purchasing a single car” in order to clarify the text of the law.

The government also introduced a provision under which loans with state-subsidized interest are to be repaid in maximum five years.

The vagueness of the former provisions allowed people to obtain loans with state-subsidized interest to buy any type of transportation means, other than cars, including motorboats and yachts.

The Romanian laws protecting the rights of people with disabilities allow disabled grownups to contract loans with state-subsidized interest, via the budget of the National Authority for Disabled Persons, to purchase a single mean of transportation and to build proper access ways at home, provided the credit rates are paid in due time.

 “Clearly, the purpose of these norms is to offer to a greater number of people with serious disabilities the possibility to purchase cars fitted to their special needs or, if that is the case, the possibility to modify their homes according to individual access needs,” the government said in a note.

“(…) the Ministry of Economy and Finance found out that the mentioned loans are granted by any type of crediting institution, for all interest rates and any category of transportation mean, regardless of its value and the loan’s maturity, which leads to interests that exceed the price of the purchased means of transportation,” the note mentioned.