People with 80% disability in Greece are exempt from the obligation to pay a special solidarity levy (eisfora alilegiis), and the income of persons with disabilities of any form is not counted at a level of disability of eighty per cent (80%) or above following Article 18 (1) of the very recent Law 4646/2019 (Government Gazette) A 201).
This provision implements a proposal submitted by the Ombudsman in 2018 and has repeatedly reinstated it to the relevant Ministries of Finance and Labor.
Specifically, the Ombudsman raised the issue of excluding categories of persons with disabilities from the obligation to pay a special solidarity levy, like Article 43A of Law 4172/2013 provided that “incomes of persons with a severe mobility disability at a rate of eighty per cent (80%) or more are exempted and not taken into account.”
The Ombudsman, having been designated as the Framework for the Promotion of the Implementation of the UN Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities, pointing out that other categories of people with severe disabilities are also not included in the exemption (eg autism, mental retardation, deafness, haematological diseases, etc.). The Authority emphasized that given the introduction of the above exemption with a view to protecting this vulnerable group and for the sake of the equal treatment of its citizens, the scope of the provision in question should be expanded to include all cases of severe disability, based on the rate (80%) of disability rather than the type of disability.