It is most thoughtful and timely of Women, Family and Community Development Minister Dr Ng Yen Yen to raise the qualifying ceiling for the disabled to obtain their monthly workers allowance so that they can better cope with the rising costs of living.

However, we in PetPositive are disappointed that the monthly allowance of RM300 has not also been raised to RM500 for each disabled Malaysian throughout the country as we had suggested in our meeting with the minister earlier this month.

The reason why there is an exigency for such a move is that the disabled face a higher cost of living when compared to the able-bodied.

They not only have to pay for costly assistive devices that are specific to their disabilities such as wheelchairs, crutches, Braille-material, hearing aids and a host of others, but also for their medication which can run into hundreds of ringgit per month.

The RM300 is presently only for those with jobs. What about those who can’t work such as the paralysed and bedridden persons?

The government should make it such that people like these are able to automatically qualify for the same amount of financial aid instead of being considered on a case to case basis as appears to be the current policy.

Evaluations of such kind are more disabling than of real use or purpose. Such a measure can be easily abused too. Disabled people who need help may, as a result, be discriminated by such a system.

PetPositive once again would like to call upon the good minister to immediately increase the present RM300 disability allowance to RM500 a month.

This financial aid should be given to each and every disabled person regardless of what kind of handicaps they have and whether they are working or not.

The writer is president, Malaysian Animal-Assisted Therapy for the Disabled and Elderly Association (PetPositive).