Our Minister of Family and Social Services, Derya Yanık, gave the good news that with the new regulation, they have bent the rules for benefiting from Electricity Consumption Allowance for Chronic Patients, and said, "Those who received home care allowance was not able to benefit from electricity allowance. With our new arrangement persons with disabilities who receive home care assistance will also benefit from this electricity allowance.”

During an interview with Ihlas News Agency, our Minister Derya Yanık shared details on the work carried out by the Ministry on many topics such as natural gas assistance given to households in need, electricity consumption allowance for citizens who are dependent on the device due to chronic illness, and home care assistance.

Minister Yanık stated that they made a new arrangement in Electricity Consumption Allowance for Chronic Patients and expanded the scope, and said, "We provide electricity consumption allowance to our citizens who are dependent on the device due to their chronic disease. We are expanding this scope with our new arrangement. In the past, those who received home care allowance could not benefit from this electricity allowance. From now on, our citizens with disabilities who receive home care allowance will also benefit from this electricity allowance. For each patient, we will provide support in the amount of 150 kilowatt-hours per month in addition to the electricity consumption allowance we normally provide."  

“(Natural gas allowance) We are carrying out our work to increase the amount of allowance”

Noting that they are working to increase the amount of allowance for the second payment of the natural gas allowance, which was given for the first time this year, Minister Yanık said, "We are carrying out studies that will increase our amount of allowance and the number of beneficiary households. When we first started this study, we planned the number of beneficiary households to be the maximum number. It can receive up to 4 million applications. So far, 230 thousand of our households have benefited from our allowance. Applications are made online on e-Devlet (e-Government)."

“We meet the basic needs of a total of 1,553 Ukrainians, 129 of whom are children.”

Minister Yanık stated that after Russia declared war on Ukraine, they hosted a total of 1,553 Ukrainians, including 129 children and 424 caregivers, in Antalya, Muğla and Sakarya and said: “We carry out the process in coordination with our Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Interior. We, as the ministry, took a task to provide care and protection services for these children. We provide psychosocial support and educational support. We meet their basic needs. We meet the needs of social, cultural and sports activities. For the time being, we are trying to provide Ukrainian war victims with the same services we provide to our children for whom we take responsibility in our own care institutions."

“Different ministries have duties and responsibilities in aiding persons with disabilities”

Minister Yanık, stating that there may be grievances due to some measurement differences in Home Care Allowance and other supports provided to citizens with disabilities, said: “The processes in supporting persons with disabilities are not only carried out by the Ministry of Family and Social Services. Different ministries also have duties and responsibilities. For example, the Ministry of Health determines how many percent of people are with disabilities. How much allowance each disability group will receive is determined by law. Since we provide that social service, we collect the demands of our citizens with disabilities. We actually take part in the last segment. There are some criticisms about disability determination and measurement of social benefits. We are working to fix these problems. As far as possible, we are trying to manage a process that will make the lives of our citizens with disabilities easier and act faster.”

Reminding that they created the National Disability Database System in order to provide services for citizens with disabilities more effectively and quickly, Minister Yanık noted that with this important study, they are working to create a database and detailed data for persons with disabilities.

National Early Intervention Program for Children

Stating that they have implemented the National Early Intervention Program in order to provide ease of access to health services for children with diseases detected at an early age, Minister Yanık said: "Thus, we will make the treatment and rehabilitation process earlier, making it more effective and result-oriented. Families will be involved in the process. With family assistance programs, it will be possible to detect and prevent risks in terms of the development of babies and children. Risky family and risky baby maps will be created. Many disabilities will be prevented by early diagnosis and intervention from the newborn period."

Minister Yanık stated that they will undertake many activities that will facilitate the lives of citizens with disabilities through the 2030 Barrier-Free Vision Document they have prepared. In this respect, Minister Yanık stated that services such as access to the right to education, full participation in social life, active participation in decision-making processes, access to education at the earliest possible age for those with special needs and family counseling are provided.

Minister Yanık stated that they have prepared awareness studies within the framework of the First Autism Action Plan, established inter-institutional cooperation, an early diagnosis treatment chain; that they have been working on development of services for families, educational evaluation, employment processes, working life, social work, social assistance, goals of participation in social life, early diagnosis treatments chain, and an autism screening-follow-up program.

Minister Yanık stated that they started autism screening for children growing up in child homes in Ankara with the Notice Me Project (Beni Fark Et Projesi) and they worked with civil society organizations while struggling with autism.

Minister Yanık, who said, "We have prepared the second Autism Action Plan (2022-2025)," shared the details as follows: “Early diagnosis, treatment processes, planning of special education rehabilitation processes and providing these children with equal access to social lives as much as possible came to the fore in our interviews with both civil society organizations and families of children with autism. We are doing the necessary works for this. Inter-institutional cooperation is very important in this sense. As a matter of fact, we are also working with the Ministry of National Education. In the upcoming period, we will work more intensively to meet the special education needs.”

“We provided a total of 6 billion 25 million lira home care allowance”

Reminding that the 1,798 lira home care allowance provided last year increased to 2 thousand 354 lira this year, Yanık said, "We are currently providing home care allowance to 543 thousand people. Since the beginning of 2022, we have provided a total of 6 billion 25 million lira home care allowance. Our disability pension varies between 865 lira and 1,298 lira per month, depending on the disability rate. 616,000 people receive disability pension. We paid a total of 5 billion liras in 2021."