Cyprus’s Deputy Ministry of Social Welfare has rejected claims that a monthly grant for blind persons is being scrapped, saying the reports amount to misinformation and that payments continue without interruption.
The ministry said the blind persons’ grant — worth €382 a month and administered by the Department of Social Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities — has not been suspended for existing recipients, and that new applications are being processed normally.
There are currently 1,995 recipients, at a total annual cost of €9.3 million. Since last September — the period during which reports claimed the processing of applications had been halted — three Disability Assessment Centres in Nicosia, Limassol and Larnaca have examined and approved 88 new blind recipients. A further 120 applications are currently pending and are being processed as normal, the ministry said.
The ministry said the misinformation causing what it described as unfounded alarm among blind people in Cyprus originated from the Pan-Cyprian Organisation of the Blind itself.
The ministry also addressed a disability bill currently before parliament — the Social Participation, Inclusion and Independent Living of Persons with Disabilities Law of 2026 — saying the definition of a blind person and the blind persons’ grant have both been incorporated into the legislation exactly as they stand today. Far from being abolished or reduced, the ministry said, the grant could in fact be increased once the bill becomes law, as the Council of Ministers would gain the power to raise it along with all other disability benefits. The bill would also allow for the expansion of personal assistance, home care and independent living provisions to a greater number of new recipients.
All related rights currently held by blind persons and persons with disabilities under other legislation — including electricity tariff concessions — are explicitly protected in the bill, the ministry added.