Greek disability groups expressed anger yesterday at a government decision to expand a list of state-recognized disability categories to include pedophiles, exhibitionists and kleptomaniacs. No news yet as to whether or not these people will also qualify for special parking close to schools, playgrounds, and shopping malls.

Pyromaniacs, compulsive gamblers, fetishists and sadomasochists may also step to the front of the cue. They too have been added to the extended list for purposes of medical assessment and used as a gauge for allocating financial assistance.

The National Confederation of Disabled People called the action “incomprehensible,” and said pedophiles are now awarded a higher government disability pay than some people who have received organ transplants. NCDP leader Yiannis Vardakastanis, who is blind, warned the new list could create new difficulties for disabled Greeks who are already facing benefit cuts due to the country’s financial crisis:

The new list gives pyromaniacs and pedophiles disability pay up to 35 percent, compared to 80 percent for heart transplant recipients. It’s really not serious to grant Peeping Toms a 20-30 percent disability rate, and 10 percent to diabetics, who have insulin shots four or five times a day.

[Source: News24]