The reform of 1997 contributed to isolating two disability adjudication systems - the ZUS medical adjudication system for disability living allowance and the disability evaluation system. NIK has observed, however, that the reform did not increase the significance of medical or vocational rehabilitation. After all, rehabilitation plays the key role in the return-to-work process for sick and injured persons and it should be started as soon as possible. Why? To decrease the number of persons threatened with incapacity for work and reduce outlays for future disability living allowances. And these are high. More than PLN 18 billion per year is paid only for disability living allowances.
According to NIK, tasks performed in both systems are so similar that they should be integrated. The more so because they use similar criteria towards applicants - disability evaluation and capacity or incapacity for work. Their merger would eliminate e.g. the need for pensioners to participate in yet another administrative proceeding in order to acquire some rights and allowances that disabled persons are entitled to.
In a minimum scope did ZUS branches use their rights to adjudicate on whether vocational retraining is justified in disability cases (less than 1 percent). That was the case despite the fact that more than 30 percent of persons applying for disability living allowance were not older than 50 years. Only a small percentage of persons receiving training allowance underwent vocational retraining (about 15 percent). Reason? The lack of money for training programmes and courses, as well as no determination of the persons receiving the training allowance. According to NIK, ZUS’ cooperation with the training organisers proved ineffective. The provisions of the Training Allowance Act were dead because the vocational rehabilitation could not be used in reality.
It was a common practice of disability adjudication bodies that decisions were issued by physicians who were not specialists in a given area. Besides, advice of consultant doctors was sought too rarely (in ZUS it was only in 6.5 percent of cases). Specialist examinations were resorted to not very often, either. Nearly 40 percent of poviat teams did not send individuals to disability evaluation examinations. As a consequence, more than 1/3 disability decisions are revoked or changed in the appeal proceedings, and this is done based on the analysis of the same documentation. In these circumstances the activity of disability adjudication bodies provides no guarantee that public money is spent in a rational way and allowances are given to eligible persons. In the period 2010-2012 (first half), the disability adjudication costs at ZUS totalled PLN 487 million and the expenses on the activity of disability evaluation teams at the poviat and province levels were PLN 236 million (in reality the teams’ operation costs are higher as part of them is covered by local governments).
