Fuel subsidy for motorized wheelchairs for the disabled

Details of official documents on subsidy for motorized wheelchairs for the disabled:

Subsidy receivers

The subsidy receivers are disabled persons who own motorized wheelchairs in rural and urban areas with lower limbs disabilities. They need to have a State-recognized certificate of disability and proof of purchase of a motorized wheelchair, which should be in line with the national standards (GB12995-2006).

Subsidy standards

Previously, the annual subsidy for the motorized wheelchairs of disabled persons stood at 200 yuan for each wheelchair (subsidies from 2009 and 2010 will be paid to those qualified). The subsidy increased to 260 yuan from 2011.

The subsidy distribution and related work will be open and fair to all and strictly follow prescribed terms and procedures. At the same time, open information and public supervision mechanisms will be ensured so the subsidy policy, subject and standards will all be clear to the public.

Assignment of responsibility

The fuel subsidy work is jointly the responsibility of financial administrations and the disabled associations at various levels. The China Disabled Persons’ Federation takes charge of statistics, verification and collection of the overall number of motorized wheelchairs for disabled persons and proposes subsidy distribution methods. The Ministry of Finance reviews and delivers the subsidy. Provincial finance administrations and disabled persons’ associations formulate specific subsidy implementation plans and organize work on data statistics, review, collection, report, verification, appropriation and management. Finance administrations and disabled persons’ associations at county (city or autonomous region) level check subsidy candidates and take care of subsidy delivery, management, statistics and reports.

i. Eligible disabled person may apply to local disabled persons’ association with relevant credentials.

ii. Local associations (at county, city or autonomous region levels) will review application materials and collect information on qualified candidates and their motorized wheelchairs, and then get verification from the financial administration at the same level before reporting to the provincial association and finance administration. The provincial association will review the overall number of motorized wheelchairs over the previous year, and have those results verified by the provincial finance department. The association shall then submit those figures to their State-level counterparts before the end of March.

iii. The China Disabled Persons’ Federation will review and collect the overall number of motorized wheelchairs nationwide and propose fund distribution methods and report to the Ministry of Finance for approval. The ministry then will deliver subsidy funds to provincial finance administrations and inform the disabled persons’ associations and ombudsman offices of finance departments at all levels of relevant information.

iv. Provincial finance department and disabled persons’ association will deliver the subsidy funds to their counterparts at lower levels, which will send money to the disabled who meet relevant requirements for the subsidy.

Other requirements

i. Finance departments and disabled persons’ associations at all levels should pay great attention to the subsidy work, strengthen communication and coordination with traffic management departments and report work development to government. Relevant parties should carefully formulate subsidy work implementation plans, organize subsidy deliveries and ensure relevant policies are carried out.

ii. Disabled persons’ associations at all levels should strictly follow project management requirements and assign special personnel for management. Standard qualification review and file management mechanisms concerning subsidy receivers should be established. Finance departments should work with same-level disabled persons’ associations to strengthen fund use management and ensure no interception, embezzlement or appropriation.

iii. Disabled persons’ associations at all levels should carefully verify the numbers of motorized wheelchairs and subsidy receivers to ensure accurate and reliable data. Finance departments at all levels should work with the associations to supervise and evaluate project implementation. Provincial association and finance departments should report their work on the subsidy to the China Disabled Persons’ Federation and the Ministry of Finance by the end of every year. The two authorities will conduct random checks on the implementation of the subsidy work.