CGIL Abruzzo and Molise: “With Legislative Decree 39/2024 disabled people are walled in and live at home”

Harsh note from the General Secretary of the CGIL Abruzzo and Molise Carmine Ranieri and the regional manager of the Disability Office, Claudio Ferrante against Law Decree 39 of 2024.

“The Legislative Decree of 29 March n. 39 of 2024, containing urgent measures regarding tax breaks, adopted by the Government is starting to bear fruit: thousands of Abruzzo residents with disabilities are effectively under house arrest. Due to this shameful Decree, the concessions for the transfer of credit and the 75% discount on the invoice for the removal of architectural barriers have disappeared. This means that people with disabilities who cannot advance large sums to install lifts, stairlifts or lifting platforms will be walled in alive because they will no longer be able to leave their homes due to architectural barriers.”

This was reported by the general secretary of the CGIL Abruzzo Molise, Carmine Ranieri, and the regional manager of the CGIL Disability Policy Office, Claudio Ferrante.

“Only a few months ago, with the issuing of legislative decree no. 212 of 2023, which came into force on January 1, 2024, people with disabilities had been penalized because the government had excluded from the invoice discount interventions to eliminate architectural barriers such as: fixtures, floors, toilets and others – recall Ranieri and Ferrante – Now the Government has completed the work by removing the invoice discount also for the construction, in existing buildings, of interventions aimed at eliminating architectural barriers involving stairs, ramps, elevators, stairlifts and lifting platforms”.

“The question we ask Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is this: following an accident or illness – they add – how does a citizen who finds himself with walking difficulties enter or leave his home? How will low-income or incompetent families or families with limited economic possibilities eliminate architectural barriers? In Abruzzo the issue of architectural barriers creates continuous discrimination and continuous violations of human rights. If in the process of converting the decree into law the right to discount on invoices to eliminate architectural barriers is not restored, thousands of Abruzzo residents with disabilities will be forced to no longer be able to leave their homes”.

“The Minister for Disabilities, Alessandra Locatelli, cannot pretend nothing has happened and if the national government does not turn around the ball will pass to the councilor for social policies of the Abruzzo region, Roberto Santangelo, who will have to worry about solving the problem through funds regional. The CGIL Abruzzo Molise – conclude Carmine Ranieri and Claudio Ferrante – asks the parliamentarians elected in the region to take charge of the problem to ensure that disabled people are guaranteed fundamental rights as established by our Constitution”.