With a joint conference held in Vienna on Monday 9 December, the authorities of the main Austrian charitable organizations addressed their own requests in terms of aid to the new government. Caritas, the Evangelic organization Diakonie, the Red Cross and the aid organizations Hilfswerk Austria and Volkshilfe pointed out the “shortcomings in the country’s aid sector”: according to the available data, there are 540,000 persons in Austria in need of care and assistance at the present time; their number is destined to grow by a third by 2011. To be able to respond to these growing needs, the organizations presented the government with a 10-point programme: in particular, they ask that charitable donations be tax-deductible and request greater state funding for the hospice movement, whose activities are now largely performed thanks to private donations and volunteer service. “Any further development of the work of the hospices is dependent on more state funds being made available; a contribution to their costs by private health insurance plans must also be guaranteed; otherwise there’s the risk of creating a two-tier society in this sector”, said Frank Küberl, president of Caritas, who also stressed the lack of a “national programme of assistance” with clearly defined functions and funding criteria. Michael Chalupka, director of Diakonie, deplored “the insecurities and imponderables” that characterize “the assumption of state tasks by the aid organizations”, with “repercussions on the quality of their service”.
