Social Solidarity Minister Michael Farrugia has defended the government’s planned €12 million hub for persons with disabilities after the former chairman of the disability commission lambasted the project as “segregation by stealth”.

“I don’t think he has understood what the hub actually is,” Dr Farrugia told a press conference this morning.

Writing in this newspaper last week, former KNPD chairman Joseph Camilleri said the scheme fulfilled the needs not of persons with a disability but of their parents, and demeaned intellectually disabled people with the same aspirations as their peers.

“Disabled people want to live, learn, work, and love in real communities not in some segregated gilded cage,” Mr Camilleri said.

Dr Farrugia, however, insisted the hub – which will include private residences, commercial spaces and a respite and day care centre – came in response to numerous complaints from NGOs in the disability field about the lack of meeting space available for them.

“The main function of the hub will be to provide that resource for NGOs while also giving people with a disability and their families a much-needed social space,” he said.

Dr Farrugia also announced this morning that 1,269 people had benefitted from in-work benefits up to the end of September.

The in-work benefit was introduced in last year’s Budget for low-income families with two working parents and dependent children up to the age of 23, as well as for single parents.

The scheme was extended in the new Budget for families with only one working parent, with an income of between €6,600 and €12,700.

Dr Farrugia said some 3,700 families and 5,000 children would benefit from the extended scheme. The maximum benefit is €150 per child, as opposed to €1,000 in cases where both parents worked.

“We have intentionally kept the benefit lower to encourage both parents to work,” he said. “Statistics have consistently shown that the risk of poverty and social exclusion, for parents as well as their children, is significantly reduced