The average monthly wage at welfare service facilities for persons with disabilities in Tottori Prefecture exceeded 20,378 Yen for the first time last fiscal year, according to a prefectural government report.
The number of welfare benefit applications stood at 255,079 in Japan in 2023, rising for the fourth consecutive year, the welfare ministry said Wednesday.
Households that fall under the “others” category, which includes those led by unemployed people but excludes those led by single mothers and people with disabilities or disease, accounted for 15.8 pct.
Japan will no longer provide public aid for medical services related to COVID-19 from April, the health ministry officially announced on Tuesday.
After the end of the public aid, patients will be asked to pay 10 to 30 pct of COVID-19 drug costs out of pocket under the country’s health insurance system. Hospitalization subsidies will also be scrapped at the end of this month.
In Kiryu City, a business operator that operates a support facility for children with disabilities fraudulently lost over 2.5 million yen in benefits from the city and other organizations by pretending that the manager was working full-time. The prefecture’s designation was revoked as a result of an administrative penalty for receiving the benefits.
The prefecture will cancel the designation of this business operator on April 1st, meaning that the business operator will not be able to provide support for children with disabilities for five years thereafter.
On December 12th, the Osaka Prefectural Government announced that, as a result of the comprehensive inspection following a series of problems with the My Number system, it had found a total of eight cases of errors in which information relating to a prefectural resident’s disability certificate was linked to the My Number of another person. At the request of the national government, information on approximately 70,000 diaries had been investigated by the end of November. No leakage of personal information has been confirmed.
In preparation for the next fiscal year’s revision of compensation for welfare services for persons with disabilities, Kyosaren, a Tokyo-based national organization that supports persons with disabilities, submitted a petition signed by 1,411 organizations to Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare Keizo Takemi on December 8th, requesting a positive revision of basic compensation in light of the severe operating environment at service centers, including a serious labor shortage.
Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) has conducted a survey on the business conditions of establishments providing welfare services for persons with disabilities, and found that their profit margins in the last fiscal year were lower than the average for all industries, indicating that they are in a difficult situation.
During the inspection of the My Number system, Gunma Prefecture announced on October 31 that it had confirmed 12 cases of errors in linking disability certificates to the system. The names and identification numbers of two different people with disabilities were linked to a single number, and the names and identification numbers of the different people could be viewed on “MyNa Portal,” a website for people who have obtained a MyNumber card.
The first prison in the country to house only young inmates with physical disabilities or intellectual disabilities, with an emphasis on supporting their reintegration into society, was established in Ichihara City, Chiba Prefecture.
The ‘Ichihara Youth Correctional Center’ is a newly established facility that was a juvenile detention center until April of this year.
A company operating a group home in Minato Ward, Tokyo, is being audited by the national government and local governments for allegedly overcharging users of the home for food. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has notified Aichi Prefecture and other relevant local governments to confirm whether the company has been improperly billing local governments for disability welfare services.
Barrier Free Japan