countries - Lithuania

The information contained on this page was compiled in April 2009 by our country team.

Contact:
Jonas Ruskus
Social Work School
Kaunas Vytautas Magnus University

Email: j.ruskus@sdi.vdu.lt
http://www.vdu.lt/sdi

The full text can be downloaded here.

The key national bodies with responsibility for disability law and policy implementation include:

 The Department for the Affairs of Disabled at the Ministry of Social Security and Labour exists to plan and co-ordinate social policy for the integration and equal rights of disabled people (including a national program on social inclusion).

Lithuania has signed the United Nations Convention and the Optional Protocol.

Important national laws, policies and strategies concerning disabled people include:

Law on Social Services (2006 No X-493);

Key features of the national system include (including adapted items from the MISSOC database December 2008):

Disability benefits

Pensions for incapacity to work are funded through a compulsory social insurance scheme financed by contributions covering the active population (employees and self-employed) and provide pensions consisting of a basic (flat-rate) and a supplementary (earnings-related) part.(MISSOC, 2008)

Data on population indicate that:

Disability and Working Capacity Assessment Office present:

In 2007, 25.6 thousand persons of working age were for the first time recognised as disabled. Against 2006, this number grew by more than by 25 per cent, and made 12 persons per 1000 working age population. Most (24 per cent) persons of working age were for the first time recognised as disabled due to diseases of the circulatory system.

There is currently no national academic research network on disability studies in Lithuania.

Special Education Research Centre at Siauliai University studies various spheres of education of persons with disabilities, ways of meeting and assessing their educational, psychological, and social needs, also speech therapy and social integration areas. At present the main research topic of the Centre is 'Exclusion and social participation: educational and psychosocial issues‘.

The national organisation representing disabled people at the European level (European Disability Forum) is:

The Lithuanian National Forum of the Disabled operates on the principle of ‘nothing about us without us'. It seeks to disseminate information, shape policy development, and encourage research on disability issues.

Useful sources of more detailed information about the situation of disabled people, and the policies and support available, include:

Official statistics on the social integration of disabled people are available from the Statistical Department (see also the 2008 Statistical Yearbook)

Links to relevant legislation are provided by LZNS