The Public Defender of Georgia has addressed the Government of Georgia with a recommendation to eliminate discrimination against persons with disabilities who have reached the retirement age.

According to the recommendation, the part of the Government’s Decree (No 279) on Social Package, which prohibits the simultaneous enjoyment of a disability social package and an age pension and allows only one of them, is discriminatory.

The recommendation focuses on the purposes of these two types of pensions. The purpose of the social package for persons with disabilities is to mobilize financial resources to respond to environmental, community-defined barriers. And one of the goals of age pension is to provide more social guarantees for older people due to the increased costs of their health care. It should be noted that the age-related health problems may be developed among persons with disabilities independently of their special needs.

In view of all the above, the Public Defender of Georgia established direct discrimination on the ground of disability and called on the Prime Minister of Georgia to ensure that reaching the retirement age by a person with disabilities does not always exclude the possibility of receiving the social package and the -age pension at the same time; In addition, the social protection rules should be changed in such a way that the issue of simultaneous enjoyment of these two financial benefits should be resolved by taking into account the individual needs of persons concerned.