Rebellion of Disabled People

The Socialist Party of Iceland's message in the parliamentary elections on September 25, 2021: Thirteenth offer to voters presented on September 17:REBELLION OF DISABLED PEOPLE

The situation today

In Iceland, there is long-standing and blatant economic injustice towards sick and disabled people. Injustice that causes our society to be damaged and poverty to thrive here, despite our country being one of the richest in the world. Damaged in such a way that tens of thousands live here with financial dependence and insecurity, prejudice and isolation, shame and fear for their livelihood. The human rights of these people are violated every day of the year. A new study conducted for ÖBÍ by Varða, the research institute of ASÍ and BSRB, shows that 80% of disabled people struggle to make ends meet, and the same proportion denies themselves healthcare. Over 40% need financial assistance from friends or relatives, and another 12% are forced to accept food donations from aid organizations.

Disabled people are all kinds of people from all possible professions, people who were born disabled, people who fell ill, worked themselves to exhaustion, or were in an accident, but now have to live with constant anxiety about their livelihood due to poverty.

The Great Tax Transfer

In recent decades, the political ruling class has carried out a massive transfer of the tax burden, where levies on the rich have shifted to the poor, often chronically ill and disabled people. From being almost non-existent in 1996, the tax burden on disabled people has gradually increased and reached up to 52% in 2021. The cost of living in Iceland is at least 150,000 ISK higher than the net unreduced pension after tax. According to the consumption price in the Ministry of Social Affairs' calculation model today, an individual's subsistence should be 198,046 ISK without housing costs, and if housing costs are added (e.g., rent for a new social two-room apartment in the capital area), it totals about 348,046 ISK with housing costs, but in the aforementioned figures, both food and medical costs are significantly underestimated. The free and unregulated housing market then easily increases this figure, while housing benefits and child benefits are also far too low given the current situation.

Low Amounts and High Reductions

Icelanders hold a world record in reductions of disability pension payments. In Iceland, income-related reductions and cuts apply to 70% of pension income, but the same cannot be said for the other Nordic countries, where reductions only apply to 5-10% of pension income. Pension funds in Iceland provide normal payments to people, but the state cruelly wields the cutback knife, thereby depriving people of the possibility of a dignified existence.

Payment Awareness Through Co-payment

With the neoliberalism that has dominated our society in recent decades, a so-called co-payment system emerged here, both within healthcare services and through Sjúkratryggingar Íslands (Icelandic Health Insurance). Implementing "cost awareness" among sick and disabled people became one of the more important tasks for those in power. The purpose was to make it increasingly difficult for these people to receive the healthcare they needed. The self-evident idea that disabled people were fully health-insured became more distant, and instead, a system of high and arbitrary co-payments emerged, which meant that disabled people often cannot afford to pick up necessary medications, undergo rehabilitation, or seek medical services.

Dysfunctional Housing Market

The housing system makes the lives of disabled people, like other marginalized groups, worse and more difficult. The rental market in Iceland is completely unregulated. The government has broken its promise to the labor movement to implement a rent cap to curb the greed of landlords. And the dream of owning one's own home is as distant as imaginable for disabled people on meager benefits. A loan category for shared-equity loans introduced in the summer of 2020 does not cover the first three income deciles. Shared-equity loans also contain all sorts of restrictions that mean those who can utilize the loans are directed to the peripheral areas of Reykjavík and its surroundings. Furthermore, the social systems of municipalities have only secured affordable housing for a few percent of tenants, with between 0.5% and 8% of housing being social rental housing. Disabled people cannot seek grants from any funds to make accessibility modifications to their housing, if needed, and cannot pass credit assessments to refinance or perform maintenance if they are fortunate enough to own housing.

Cruel income reductions and burdensome costs of medical and pharmaceutical use, high housing and consumer prices keep disabled people in a poverty trap. Due to economic oppression, this social group experiences significant poverty prejudice. It is worth mentioning that Brynja, the housing fund of the Icelandic Association of Disabled People's housing association, due to ever-growing waiting lists, has had no choice but to stop accepting more people onto them.

Work Capacity Assessment or Systemic Changes

The state has denied the demand of disabled people to increase basic benefits along with the income disregard limit. The explanation given is that the interest organization of disabled people, ÖBÍ, has rejected the so-called work capacity assessment. Thus, the situation here is that welfare in Iceland is a unilateral bargaining chip for the ruling class, not a self-evident matter of justice. Disabled people are cornered; they are punished for not submitting to the unilateral control of the state in their wage matters, and the labor movement is made aware that it does not have the right to negotiate on behalf of disabled people.

Injustice towards disability pensioners can be found widely in the system. For example, how Tryggingastofnun (the Social Insurance Administration) fails to fulfill its duty to inform people who are entitled to the institution's services. Sick people often have to grope blindly through the system and consequently often miss out on various self-evident rights. Rights do not follow people between municipalities, and the shameful situation exists that when chronically ill children become adults, they are expected to have miraculously recovered their health. A new chapter then begins in their lives in the struggle for self-evident assistance and services.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has yet to be enacted and implemented, as has a convention on mental health. One of the UN's goals with the convention is to eliminate the institutionalization that has prevailed in recent decades with disabled people living in group homes. Instead of offering people independent living with adequate support services, it is far too common for sick people under the age of 67 to be offered residence in nursing homes for the elderly. It is still known for people to be moved in a kind of "parish transfer" between nursing homes. Many adult sick or disabled people also reside with immediate family members where they receive care and assistance without sufficient public involvement. In some cases, people are stuck in hospitals for many years without solutions, while municipalities and the state seem to dispute responsibility for support services like NPA (Personal Assistance). For these reasons, it has often not been fully funded despite fair promises. It is shameful that patients and disabled people have to endure being a bone of contention for the system and live with its consequences.

The poverty prejudice prevalent in society must be eradicated. Due to a lack of government policy towards disabled people for decades and all sorts of reductions within the system, disabled people have been marginalized by the political ruling class. The consequences are distress and a broken self-image in addition to illness or disability. Circumstances, shaped by lack of income, assets, and health, can cause a social rupture between disabled people and those who are not marginalized. Social and emotional isolation is created, making their existence even more difficult.

The Socialists' Offer to Disabled People

The Socialist Party is the political party of the general public in Iceland. Its goal is a society of freedom, equality, human dignity, and empathy. It follows from this that the first thing it offers disability pensioners is to raise the basic pension so that a dignified life is possible.

A welfare society shall be run in this country and work systematically towards a fair distribution of resources with oversight and clear information dissemination.
Within the welfare system, service representatives shall work who contact people who are injured and/or fall ill, as well as parents who have disabled children. They shall be offered assistance in claiming their rights or the services needed. Concurrently, an assessment of accessibility for them at home and/or in the workplace shall be carried out.
Poverty shall never be taxed. Therefore, the lowest wages and disability pensions shall not be subject to tax.
Let's raise the basic pension so that disability benefits never fall below the lowest wages in the labor market.
The Ministry of Social Affairs shall set realistic consumption benchmarks. Minimum wages shall therefore never fall below "correctly estimated" consumption benchmarks, but minimum wages today are around 350,000 ISK.
The wage gap that has occurred shall be corrected.
Reductions in the disability pension system shall be abolished. People shall be enabled to pursue suitable employment, and the tax system shall be used for income equalization, not the pension system itself.
Let's increase the number of part-time jobs suitable for those with reduced work capacity and shorten the work week so that the labor market here becomes more humane and family-friendly.
Let's ensure equal access to education for all, increase educational opportunities for disabled people, and abolish tuition fees at all educational levels. Let's provide study grants instead of student loans and cancel old student loans in cases of disability and irrecoverable impairment.
Everyone shall have access to healthcare services anywhere in the country, and it shall be run by the public, free of charge for citizens. It shall cover mental health, general physical health, as well as dental care. Medications shall also be fully subsidized for chronically ill and disabled people.
Mental health services shall be strengthened with improved emergency measures and enhanced addiction treatments, as well as treatments within team groups such as eating disorder teams and trans teams. Furthermore, education on mental illnesses and addiction shall be increased, and special protection shall be provided for the mental health of children and their relatives.

Children shall never bear the cost of public services such as healthcare, as they do not earn wages. Waiting lists for child diagnoses shall be eliminated, and they shall receive the services they are entitled to within the healthcare and school systems.
General education shall be established to reduce prejudice against disabled people, especially those with mental disabilities, and respect for them must be strengthened with specific reference to the Patients' Rights Act, the UN Human Rights Convention, and the ethical and professional codes of the professions and occupations primarily involved in these matters.
It shall be ensured that people's rights do not diminish or cease when moving between municipalities or temporarily abroad, and continued services shall be ensured for young people after they reach the age of 18.
User-controlled personal assistance and support services shall always be available to those who need them and ensure continued, even increased, support services for disabled people when they reach the age of 67.
The Socialist Party has put forward a proposal for the construction of 30,000 apartments over the next 10 years, which would be available for both rent and purchase. More details about this proposal can be found under the heading "The Great Housing Revolution." It shall also be ensured that universal design laws are followed in all respects and that people have access to grants to adapt their housing to their needs due to disability.
Accessibility issues shall always be in order on the part of the public sector. Furthermore, digital accessibility needs to improve significantly and be based on laws.
The system of subsidies for assistive devices, including glasses and hearing aids, needs to be improved and ensure that disabled people's access to assistive devices is based on their needs and wishes, with independent living as the guiding principle.
Public transport and transport services for disabled people shall be free of charge for people, as well as ambulance services. These services shall be improved nationwide.
Disabled people should have a choice in the type of living arrangement they prefer. If they choose to reside in a nursing home, it is important that they do not lose fundamental rights, as is currently the case, such as transport services.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities shall be implemented and enacted into law, and a similar convention on Mental Health Affairs shall be implemented.
It is a sad fact that disabled people are the group most at risk of experiencing violence. To curb this, we propose to eliminate violence through the establishment of a violence oversight body, and within it, ensure education and prevention within all public institutions, such as those working for and with disabled people.
The Socialist Party completely rejects the neoliberal ideas of work capacity assessment, but Tryggingastofnun (the Social Insurance Administration) already appears to be operating according to such an assessment without apparent legal basis. Thus, more and more people are denied disability assessments, especially younger people struggling with illness. They often end up on municipal support with even lower subsistence.

The best way to improve our society is to improve the situation of those who have suffered most due to injustice, inequality, and powerlessness. Everyone can lose their health or become disabled. Eradicating poverty from society is not only justice in action but also creates a healthier and better society where people can flourish regardless of how they are created or what abilities they possess.

Iceland is a rich country. We lack nothing; we can maintain welfare and humanity so that everyone can thrive.