Mutilated bargaining

There are 14 million disabled people in Russia. More precisely, those who have a certificate of disability. But paper does not reflect reality. Because certificates are bought and sold today.

There are 14 million disabled people in Russia. More precisely, those who have a certificate of disability. But paper does not reflect reality. Because certificates are bought and sold today. Sometimes - by absolutely healthy people for whom disability provides more income than earnings. And sometimes even truly disabled people can defend their status only by paying a bribe.

Do you want to become sick? Pay

The trade in mutilation began after monetization, when social benefits turned into hard cash. Crowds of completely healthy people wanted to become crippled. Self-interest did not remain unrequited - doctors opened shops. Since the beginning of this year alone, there have been dozens of criminal cases. In Karachay-Cherkessia, a nurse at a city clinic sold fake certificates for 700 thousand rubles, another health worker in Kazan got hold of half a million, in Voronezh, an unemployed man with a whole group of medical accomplices sold disability to healthy people for two years. And this is just the little that the police record.

“Actually, we don’t even keep statistics on such cases,” said representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. – Yes, doctors sell disability, sometimes they get caught. But doctors and teachers with their meager salaries are not the biggest offenders.

The bribes may not be large. On average across the country, a disability costs 5-10 thousand rubles, in small towns it’s at least 3 thousand, in large towns the price reaches 80. But trade is brisk. This is proven by just a couple of days of communication on this topic: in online forums, hospital queues, the bureau of medical and social examination (MSE), where disability is directly registered.

– My ex-husband bought a second group two years ago to receive an inheritance. – Svetlana P. is now receiving status herself. “His disability helped him win the lawsuit. But the increase in salary is not bad - the monthly salary with all payments is about seven thousand.

The amount is decent. And in small towns, where there is almost no work, wages are meager, the status of a disabled person may generally be the only source of income. Although getting it, as medical authorities assure, is not so easy.

“Yes, 10–20% of citizens claim disability unreasonably,” says the deputy. Head of the Federal Bureau of Medical and Social Expertise of the Ministry of Health and Social Development Mikhail Dymochka. – But only a few succeed. It is difficult for an absolutely healthy person to become disabled. The fake can be seen by the formality of the diagnosis and the medical history.

But for a bribe, the doctor at the clinic will draw up a suitable medical history, a little more money - and the ITU bureau will turn a blind eye to the formality. One contact with the right person is enough.

“We have intermediaries roaming around our clinics who, right in the queues, offer to start processing,” admits the deputy. the head physician of one of the hospitals in Tambov. – Some are just scammers, while others really have all the necessary connections.

In Moscow medical institutions, intermediaries are rare; everything can be done directly.

“You should try suggesting it to the head of medical and medical examination right away,” an experienced patient advised me in line. – It worked for us, though not in this bureau, but in another. I don’t know how they take it or not...

“They don’t take it here, I already suggested,” an elderly man intervened in the conversation. “They’re afraid, they’re starting to catch them now.” It’s better to talk to your doctor so that he warns the ITU commission. It is always easier for doctors to agree with each other. After all, they themselves are all on disability. They make themselves a third group, the easiest, but benefits for utilities and free travel are still provided.

Auction for a disabled person

By the way, the man himself, Viktor Petrovich, is a real disabled person, of the second group. And where does such sophistication in bribes come from? The fact is that real disabled people also pay doctors for their status.

“They offer it to healthy people, but they brazenly extort money from disabled people.” – Lawyer Dmitry Sazonov deals with controversial issues of establishing disability. - They organize whole auctions. Like, there are 20 of you here, and we’ll give certificates to five. Whoever pays more will remain crippled. And if there is no money, they can deprive the group or make it so bad that the pension will be pennies.

The fact is that the new scheme for establishing disability since 2005 is extremely conducive to extortion. The main role is now played by the degree of limitation of the ability to work (LTD). The material side of the matter depends on the degree, and not on the group.

“Each group has three degrees,” explains the deputy. Chairman of the All-Russian Society of Disabled Persons (VOI) Alexander Klepikov. – The third highest – a person is considered completely disabled and receives the highest pension. And the first is the easiest, and if it is prescribed to severely disabled people, they will be left without any money at all. And they set this degree by eye - whatever they want, that’s what they’ll write.

According to VOI estimates, approximately a fifth of Russian disabled people have their degree reduced during annual re-examination. To prevent this from happening, you have to pay.

“We constantly hear stories: he came with money, they wrote a third degree, and a year later this amount was no longer there, and they wrote a second,” says the head of the movement of disabled people “Our Right” Sergei Novikov. – Although this is the same blind person, only now he is paid 1000 rubles less, he does not have the right to a guide dog or a free trip to a sanatorium with an accompanying person.

Sometimes blind, deaf, paralyzed people are transferred to the category of able-bodied people.

“They lose their pension, and with their pathologies they cannot get a job until the end of their days,” says Nikolai Bubnov, head of the department of the All-Russian Society of the Blind (VOS). – There are generally incidents. Recently, a 92-year-old grandmother had her degree reduced from third to second - they wrote that she was able to work in special conditions.

In developed countries there are no degrees, and a disabled person is deprived of a pension only when he is guaranteed to get a job. And here we have to pay even for pitiful pennies in the form of social assistance.

– I came to receive disability after a kidney transplant and had already prepared the amount in an envelope. – Tatyana is waiting for her turn for the examination. - I don't want to take risks.

All associations of disabled people are fighting for the abolition of degrees. But the higher-ups have their own truth.

“In our country, almost every citizen claims to have a high level of social security,” says Mikhail Dymochka. – This is a goal that is often pursued for the sake of money. Because a disabled person sometimes receives a larger pension than a person who has worked all his life. This needs to change. Corruption in the ITU system is no more than in the country as a whole, and it is understandable. Our average salary is 5–6 thousand rubles. The staff shortage is 50%, despite the fact that most of our doctors work part-time.

And sometimes they successfully combine social work with antisocial business. They make healthy people disabled for money. And disabled people without money are registered as healthy, leaving them poor and sick.