A group of disabled people and members of citizens' groups supporting them petitioned the Tokyo Metropolitan Government on Thursday to withdraw its plan to cut financial assistance to people with heavy disabilities.

The metro government revealed in early July that it would re-examine the level of monthly assistance it has granted to those officially recognized as severely disabled. The aid, launched in 1973 under Gov. Ryokichi Minobe's welfare programs, is currently set at around 60,000 yen per month. Currently, 10,000 people in Tokyo receive such assistance.

Metro officials said that amid Tokyo's current financial difficulties, direct assistance now granted to those with heavy mental and physical disabilities, the aged and one-parent households has became a heavy burden on its coffers.

Last year, Tokyo recorded its first annual budget deficit of 106.8 billion yen in 18 years. In late July, it revealed that it would re-examine budget allocations for 138 policy programs that annually cost over 500 million yen, including assistance for the disabled.

The officials also said that the amount currently granted to severely disabled people is too high when considering that Tokyo and Kobe are currently the only local governments offering such assistance. Recipients of such assistance in Kobe get 10,000 yen a month.

A metro official who met with about 70 people who took part in the day's petition said that such direct assistance should be reviewed now that other welfare services for the disabled have been made available, according to the group.

Eiko Kimura, a chairwoman of one of the groups that participated in Thursday's meeting, said the amount currently provided by the government is indispensable to those with heavy disabilities to maintain a minimum standard of living in Tokyo. Most of the 60,000 yen she receives from the government goes to necessary expenditures, such as rent for her apartment, she said.

Kinuko Mitsui, a member of the same group, said that much of the allowance is used to cover the rent. While the government also provides financial help up to 68,000 yen specifically for housing, she needs more to cover a bigger apartment because she has to rely on two helpers to fulfill her daily needs such as bathing. Mitsui is bound to a wheelchair.

Saying that Tokyo has played a leading role in addressing local-level welfare policies for the disabled, Kimura said the move to cut back on such assistance is regrettable because groups for the disabled in other prefectures have so far worked to achieve a welfare standard in Tokyo.