SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE/MADRID, Jan. 14 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Canary Islands closed last year with a 23.1% increase in the dependency waiting list, and despite receiving a budget increase, to add a total of 9,950 people, which leaves the archipelago as the third community with more people in the ‘limbo of dependency’ –3,585 and 27.08%–, according to data provided this Friday by the Association of Directors and Managers in Social Services.
In addition, there has been an increase of 10.8% in beneficiaries entitled to a benefit, while the increase in beneficiaries who do receive the benefit was 6.8%.
According to the report, last year there were 3,202 deaths on the waiting list, 1,107 who were in the ‘limbo of dependency’ and 2,095 pending assessment.
The association has lamented the plan of the Ministry of Social Rights to reduce the dependency waiting list and has focused on Catalonia, the Canary Islands and La Rioja, where more people remain in the “limbo of dependency”.
According to the data provided by the organization, the waiting list in 2021 has only been reduced by 38,807 people compared to the 60,000 that it set as a goal and, although they have confirmed an increase in the number of beneficiaries by 97,912 (+8.71%), it believes that at this rate “it would take five years to achieve full attention”.
The association has warned that “the 392,690 people who are waiting for a procedure are being abandoned without attention”, they put the waiting time at 421 days and assures that 128 people die a day in the bureaucratic labyrinth of the law, one every 11 minutes. In 2021, 46,671 dependents died waiting for help.
The communities with the highest number of people pending receiving benefits are Catalonia (32%), La Rioja (31.53%) and Canarias (27.08%); and the least Castilla y León (0.17%), Castilla-La Mancha (4.51%) and Galicia (5.82%).
Meanwhile, Madrid (-62.9%), Aragón (-42.2%), Castilla La Mancha (-38.8%), Asturias (-32.2%) and Andalucía (-32.2%) have complied the objective of reducing the waiting list of the shock plan.
In addition, there are three communities with greater dependency limbo, despite having received the budget increase, which have increased the waiting list this year: Canarias (+23.1%), La Rioja (16.4%) and Catalonia (+7%).
The bureaucracy in the procedures and the data in these communities have not allowed the Government to meet the objective of reducing the waiting list by 60,000 people committed to the shock plan.
The communities that have increased the most the beneficiaries with benefit last year have been the Valencian Community (+14.9%), Asturias (+14.5%) and Madrid (+14.4%). On the contrary, in the Basque Country the replacement rate has not even been maintained, reducing the number of beneficiaries.
The ones that have increased the most in people entitled to benefits in 2021 have been the Valencian Community (+11.8%), the Canary Islands (+10.8%) and Asturias (+9.2%). On the contrary, in Cantabria the number of people with rights was reduced last year by 10.9%.
For the Association of Directors and Managers in Social Services, these data seem to indicate that the System for Autonomy and Dependency Care (SAAD) is reactivated, but “it has been largely based on low-cost services aimed at dependents with Grade I.
A LUSTER TO ACHIEVE FULL ATTENTION
The directors and managers consider that “the benefits and services are less and less intense, and clearly insufficient for the needs of people in situations of dependency.” They warn that, almost two years after the pandemic, it has not been possible to recover residential and day center places, -1,129 residential places and -4,732 day center places, respectively.
“At this rate it would take five years to achieve full attention,” considers the group that sees urgent measures necessary to avoid “the suffering and abandonment” of the most vulnerable people. The Government of Spain and the autonomous communities must undertake reforms that speed up the procedures.
“It is necessary to simplify the procedures and apply suspension measures and flexibility of the service or provision without the need to resolve a new procedure. We must move towards the social prescription of the reference professional as the only requirement for the execution and implementation of the benefits “, they claim.
