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Published on April 17, 2018 News

Ombudsman increasingly dealing with social security problems

The total number of complaints delivered in 2017 to the Ombudsman was 8,191. People increasingly turn to the Ombudsman's Office with their problems in the sphere of social security and also number of complaints concerning work and employment increased by 39 percent.

The ombudsman’s office resolved 8,266 complaints, forty of them were from children. In 576 cases an error or discrimination were found – in 528 cases the ombudsman managed to ensure remedy.

The ombudsman dealt with almost 1,500 cases in the sphere of social security. 

"In the past three years, we saw a permanent growth of complaints in this sphere. Last year, there were roughly 100 people filing a complaint more," the ombudsman Anna Šabatová says. The complaints mainly related to the contribution to care, the benefits for handicapped people, sickness insurance and pensions.

Last year, the office also examined over 600 complaints from the sphere of construction and regional development, while another almost 500 complaints were from the sphere of the military, police and prison service.

The ombudsman also visited 22 facilities where people are restricted in their freedom. During the series of visits to facilities for long-term patients, the ombudsman found that they were so understaffed that it was impossible to provide the patients with the required level of individual care, and the patients’ dignity and privacy could therefore be violated. This was also reflected in the use of restraints, insufficient monitoring of pain, nutrition etc.

The ombudsman addressed 5 legislative recommendations to the Chamber of Deputies. Recommendations are based on the most serious problems found in the activities of the ombudsman.

Recommendations to the Chamber of Deputies:
  1. Make sure that the current exemption from real estate acquisition tax also includes residential units in residential houses.
  2. Abolish the duty of Czech citizens or foreigners to submit registry documents issued by the Special Registry in official contact.
  3. Cancel the precondition of sterilisation for administrative sex change.
  4. Modify the administrative procedure on reimbursement of certain healthcare services for insured persons. The current situation is not in line with the insured persons’ interest in access to healthcare.
  5. Ensure that any violation of dignity, privacy, safety and integrity in the provision of social services constitutes an infraction.

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