The Personal Assistance service will start work in Moldova on January 1. Its aim is to provide assistance and care to children and adults with severe disabilities. The parents or persons who look after such people will receive salaries, Info-Prim Neo reports. In a news conference on February 7, Minister of Labor, Social Protection and Family Valentina Buliga said the development of the Personal Assistance Service will help improve the social protection measures intended for family members who take care of persons with severe disabilities and cannot thus work. “A sum of 4.8 million lei was earmarked for 2013 for employing 179 personal assistants. The local public authorities can also hire personal assistants and pay them from their own resources. The salaries will be on average 1,000 lei a month,” said Valentina Buliga. At the place of residence, these persons will also benefit from compensations from the local budgets for trips by urban, suburban, and interurban transport. “The allowance for looking after persons with severe disabilities, who are permanently in need of care, was raised on January 1 to 500 lei a month, up from 300 lei earlier,” stated the official. According to the Social Assistance and Family Protection Division, 146,400 persons with disabilities received such compensations in 2012. The compensations totaled 52.1 million lei. A sum of 54.4 million lei was budgeted for the purpose for 2013.