Telephony: all the facilitations for users with disability

26 March 20172 March 2018Leave a comment

We’ve talked about the facilitations foreseen by the law to buy computers and other technological apparels already. But maybe you don’t know that there are facilitations dedicated to disabled people for landline and mobile phone rates and to surf the Internet as well. A deliberation issued by the Authority for Communications on October 3^rd 2007 defines convenient rates and discounts for the telephony users with a sensory (visual or auditory) disability and for the families including member with these disabilities. A recent update further extends these facilitations.

Landline and Internet

landline telephony

Here you have the facilitations for disabled users for their home telephone line (Internet included).

50% discount on the monthly rate for elderly, disabled people and users with “special social needs” and for all the offer packages including Internet traffic– To benefit from it, the family must include an “over-75” or disabled member, or someone receiving a social pension or an unemployed head of the family. Moreover, the total family “ISEE” mustn’t exceed 6713,93 €.
Total exemption from paying the monthly rate for deaf people – Reserved to people holding the deaf certificate (Law 381/1970) and eligible for the communication allowance, if owners of the subscription, or to the subscriber living with the deaf person. To benefit from it, you must present the “family status certificate” (even self-certifiable), together with the medical certificate of the deafness and eligibility for the communication allowance.
Facilitations for blind people – Telephone operators must recognize 90 hours per month of free Internet traffic from home, in case of consumption-based rates, or a 50% discount on the monthly rate, in case of “flat” subscriptions. The facilitations, previously reserved to totally blind people only, have been recently extended to partially blind people too, presenting the appropriate certificates. As for the facilitations for deaf people, in this case you can benefit from them also when the subscription is owned by someone living with the blind person.

mobile telephony

Exemption from paying the license tax, usually owed for mobile telephony subscriptions.
Offer package dedicated to deaf or (totally or partially) blind users– This rate must include an appropriate amount of data traffic for an affordable price, not exceeding 50% of the best price for all the offer packages including the same amount of data traffic.
For deaf users – The law foresees at least 20 Gb of data traffic, in addition to at least 50 free SMS per day.
For visually impaired users – The law foresees an offer including 2000 minutes of free voice traffic and at least 10 Gb of data traffic.

Telephone companies will have to make these favoured rates available by 120 days since the January 2017 Agcom deliberation entered into force. In the meantime, the existing facilitations foreseen by each operator for disabled users remain valid. For more information, please refer to the website of each operator.

But it’s clear that a huge portion of users with disability is still out of those facilitations. For those people, telephone (most of all the mobile one) is an essential tool for social and work inclusion. When will there be fares for motoric disabled people too?

Fiscal facilitations for disabled people: what’s new in 2017

5 February 20172 March 2018Leave a comment

The Income Revenue Authority has recently made available the updated version of its Guide to the Fiscal Facilitations for People with Disability (you can download it for free in PDF format here). The January 2017 update includes 3 main news:

update of the documents needed to benefit from the deduction for healthcare expenses and to buy aids
increase of the amount that can be deducted from taxes for insurance premiums
extension of the bigger Irpef deduction to remove architectonical barriers

So, let’s see in detail the news about the fiscal facilitations for disabled people for 2017.

fiscal facilitations: expenses for healthcare and aids

In this case, the news about fiscal facilitations for 2017 concerns the documents to present in order to benefit from them. Specifically, those whose invalidity or handicap has been certified by a commission (as per the 104/92 law) may use a self-certification, specifying who and when certified their invalidity or handicap. Of course, it’s always possible that, at a later time, you are required to present the documents, therefore it’s absolutely advisable not to act as “wise guys”!

You always have to save the fiscal document (sales receipt, invoice, etc.) demonstrating the expense. Moreover, in case of prostheses and aids (including the technological ones), you’d always better save the medical prescription demonstrating the need in order to improve the quality of life of the disabled person.

FISCAL facilitations: insurance POLIcies

Other news about the fiscal facilitations for disabled people concern the insurance policies including risk of death or of permanent invalidity not lower than 5% or of not being self-sufficient in the execution of the normal daily activities. Those policies already benefited from a 19% Irpef deduction, for a maximum amount of 530 €, for the insurances including risk of death or permanent invalidity, and 1.291,14 € for those covering the risk of not being self-sufficient, respectively. The news concerns the increase from 530 to 750 € of the amount that can be deducted for the premiums deposited for people with a severe disability, that cover the risk of death.

FISCAL facilitations: architectonical barriers

Regarding interventions to remove architectonical barriers, the limits to benefit from the higher deductions have been postponed. For building renovation interventions (e.g.: elevators, goods lifts, robotics/ home automation and other technology innovations allowing to assist the internal and external mobility of people with disability), you can benefit from an Irpef deduction that’s equal to:

50%, to be calculated on a maximum amount of 96,000 €, for expenses from June 26^th 2012 and December 31^st 2017;
36%, to be calculated on a maximum amount of 48,000 €, for expenses from January 1^st 2018.

As of today, conditions to benefit from all the other facilitations (for instance, buying a car) don’t change.

An (accessible) night at the Scala

5 December 20164 December 2019Leave a comment

December 7^th is approaching and, in Milan, this means the city patron saint’s (St. Ambrose) festival and the season opening at the most famous theatre in the city: the Scala. This year, the opera selected for the premiere is “Tosca” by Giacomo Puccini, the heartbreaking story of the love between the singer Floria Tosca and Mario Cavaradossi (do you remember the famous aria “Vissi d’arte”?).

Would you like to attend one of the opera performances in the Scala’s evocative setting, but you’re worried about the accessibility of the theatre itself and of the seats you’d be assigned to? I’ve got good news for you: the theatre makes some seats in the parterre area (where accessibility is favoured by some ramps and which has also a bathroom equipped for disabled people) available for spectators with a motoric disability (whether they use a wheelchair or not) and their companions, in all the performances. In detail, there are:

3 seats reserved to spectators using a wheelchair (and their companions)
1 seat reserved to spectators with a severe disability or reduced motoring capacity (plus their companion)

The Scala Theatre

The ticket for the companion is free, while the one for the disabled person is sold at dedicated price, in accordance with the following list:

Opera: starting from € 80
Ballet: starting from € 50
Symphonic concert: starting from € 40
Piano recital: € 40
Singing recital: € 17
Christmas concert: € 60
December 7^th: € 250

The Scala Theatre - inside

Are you wondering how to book your seat at the Scala? For December 7^th, we’re tight on time, now, but you can still attend an encore performance of the opera or another of the performances included in this season’ programme. All you have to do, once you have found the one you’re interested in on the theatre website and made sure that the ticket sales have started, is to get in touch with the Scala Central Ticket Office calling 02/88796112 to book your seat and buy the ticket. Always remember to specify, while booking, if you use a wheelchair or need a seat: you’ll avoid problems during the performance!

Did I tempt you to watch “Tosca” at the Scala? Well: download its libretto to follow the performance as best as you can!

Expenses for healthcare and aids: how to detract them?

29 August 20162 March 2018Leave a comment

When living with a chronic disability, among the other things, you have also to consider the need for constant pharmacological or physical therapies and, sometimes, to buy aids (e.g. crutches or walking sticks) enabling you to be more autonomous. They can also have high costs, but here is the good news: most of those expenses (and many more) can be deducted, both for you and for your dependent relatives.

You can entirely deduct from your income, displaying the fiscal receipt or the invoice:

general medical expenses, e.g. for unbranded drugs and not-specialized medical services
“specific assistance” expenses, i.e. those related to assistance (e.g. for nurses or hospital attendants) and physiotherapy or occupational therapy. If who benefits from the assistance is in a hospital or an ad hoc care institute, only the medical and paramedical expenses related to the assistance itself can be deducted, not the entire boarding costs: then, it’s essential to request documents that report separately the specific expenses.

Healthcare expenses

Furthermore, you can benefit from a 19% Irpef deduction for:

specialized healthcare costs (e.g. blood tests, diagnostic tests, specialized medical examination and surgery), for the part exceeding the €129,11 allowance;
expenses to buy aids and artificial limbs for walking purpose, armchair for not-walking people, apparels for the containment of hernias or fractures, or orthopaedic corsets;
expenses to transport the disabled person by ambulance;
expenses to build ramps removing the architectonical barriers inside and outside the disabled person home, provided that you haven’t benefited from the fiscal facilitation for this kind of interventions as per the 13/89 law or, if so, for the exceeding part (if applicable);
expenses to adapt the elevator, so that it can contain wheelchairs;
expenses to buy technical and IT aids, to improve the disabled people self-sufficiency and facilitate their inclusion;
expenses to buy apparels needed to accompany the disabled people and to support their walking and lifting;
expenses for interpreting services paid by deaf people, always presenting the fiscal receipts released by the interpreters.

Then, carefully store prescriptions, invoices and fiscal receipts: the Income Revenue Authority could request them in order to let you benefit from the facilitations!

Let’s go to the concert!

3 June 201613 March 2018Leave a comment

Summer is the season for travel and holidays, staying outside and – why not? – attending our favourite singer’ concert.

When you have to deal with mobility issues, besides buying the ticket, you also have to think about the location that will host the event: how can you make sure to be able to reach it and that, once you’ll be there, the seat you’ve bought will be suitable for who needs to use a wheelchair or crutches?

Good – better: great- news for you: all the most important companies organizing concerts and music festivals have accessible seats and, above all, particularly favourable buying conditions for disabled people and their companions.

concert

Here you have some examples:

D’Alessandro & Galli, in each event it organizes, has a reserved area for disabled people and their companions, usually located near the fire exits, to guarantee their safety. The interested person must download the request form from the company website, fill it with the requested data and submit it to grazia@dalessandroegalli.com. The day after, he will have to call 0584/46477 to confirm the reservation and know all the details about the offered facilitations, that change depending on the event. Keep in mind that seats are assigned giving priority to the most severe disabilities, then you’d better reserve your seat in advance to the events date. The company has also specific conditions for children. If you want to take your children to the concert, before buying the ticket, verify that that event is “children friendly” (sometimes, based on the type of event or the location, events could be forbidden to children) and contact the company sending an e-mail to info@dalessandroegalli.com or calling 0584/46647.
Barley Arts allows the disabled person and his/her companion to attend the events it organizes buying only one ticket at full price (without pre-sale rights), not using the usual sales channels, but directly contacting the company sending an e-mail to info@barleyarts.com. To benefit from the facilitations and reserve your seat in the accessible area, you must attach a copy of your invalidity certificate, specifying whether you need a seat or not, plus name and surname of your companion (who must necessarily be an adult) and, if you think to reach the location by car, the vehicle plate, so that you can access the reserved parks. If everything is ok, you’ll get an e-mail confirming your reservation within 10 days since you submitted your request. You can choose to buy your ticket in advance (once you’ve received the confirmation) or directly at the event ticket office: in both cases, you’ll simply have to show the confirmation e-mail printed, to have it.
Live Nation has even better conditions, since it offers totally free entrance both to the disabled people and to their companions. How to get it? It’s easy: well in advance (as soon as the company announces the tickets sales for the event you’re interested in are open), send a request e-mail to simone@livenation.it, specifying your name and surname, a phone number and an e-mail address and, of course, the event you’re interested in, plus a copy of your invalidity certificate. As the other companies, Live Nations gives priority to the most severe disabilities. In case of particularly requested events, the company gives the opportunity to who sends the request when the seats are sold out to enrol in the waiting list: should someone else give up, the company representative will contact the interested people to confirm the seat availability and finalize everything. But don’t take it too easy! When I decided to attend the concert of my beloved Placebo (scheduled for November 2016 in Assago), in February (9 months in advance!) there was a waiting list already: lucky me, someone gave up, otherwise I would have missed it!