Woman with intellectual disabilities wins pension reimbursement

Written with extracts from The Sankei Shimbun

March 14th 2018

The Tokyo District Court ruled on March 14th in a lawsuit that a woman with an intellectual disability (unnamed, aged 24) who is employed, is entitled to the basic disability pension. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare initially made the decision not to pay the woman the basic disability pension because she was employed.

According to the judgment, the disabled woman worked for a company in Tokyo. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare made a decision to not pay the pension because the woman had been working since she was 20.

The court ruled that her disability meets the criteria for pension payment based on a doctor’s medical certificate and a family story that needs assistance in daily life.

Yoshihisa Ogayashi, the woman’s advocate, said, “It is a ruling based on the actual condition of working people with disabilities.”