SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE/MADRID, 10 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
In 2021, the Canary Islands stood as the autonomous community with the highest rate of population with severe material deprivation, with 15.1%, which represents more than 341,000 people, according to a report by the State Association of Directors and Managers of Social Services prepared with data from the National Statistics Institute (INE).
In addition, only 134,008 people receive aid, which represents slightly more than 39% of those affected and 6.1% of the total population of the islands, with a cost of almost 17.1 million, which represents an average of 127 euros. per year per recipient.
In Spain almost 4 million people (3,918,872) have serious material deficiencies in Spain but in 2021 1.5 million people received some help to cover their basic needs, with Andalusia and Madrid as the autonomous communities that allocated the least money to cover basic needs.
Regarding the amount of these aids, the association affirms that the average per year per recipient is 172.67 euros. The case of Murcia stands out, with a figure of 3,622.13 euros per recipient, as well as the more than 1,000 euros on average that are granted in Aragón (1,346.33), Castilla-La Mancha (1,086.71) Galicia (1,219, 21) and Asturias (1,007.28), compared to an average of 75.5 euros in Andalusia or 87 euros in the Community of Madrid.
The association adds that the Minimum Vital Income (IMI), the insertion income from the Autonomous Communities and the social emergency aid offered by local entities, mainly town halls, are the resources that these families have to cover these very basic needs by public administrations
However, Directors and Managers of Social Services denounce “the unnecessary and cruel bureaucratic framework, which makes it difficult for hundreds of thousands of families who would need it, to receive the IMV.” In addition, it denounces that the number of beneficiaries of the Minimum Insertion Income of the CCAAs (RMI) fell by 150,000 people in 2021 compared to 2020 and affirms that only 7.1% of the population living below the poverty line in Spain (645,317 people) benefit from these RMI.
As for aid to meet the most basic needs (food, clothing, rent, household supplies), they reached 1,576,052 people in 2021, 40.2% of the total number of people with serious material difficulties.
The association once again lists the differences by territory in this coverage: in La Rioja, the number of recipients (21,386) is higher than that of people with serious material difficulties (16,626); and in Catalonia there is coverage of 71.48%, compared to Cantabria with 0.12%, Murcia with 0.09%, or Galicia, with 1.81%.
In addition, remember that in 2021 local entities allocated 272,134,172.10 million euros in aid to people who lack basic resources, which is 63 million euros less than in 2020. This amount represents 5.76 euros per inhabitant and anus.
For all these reasons, Directors and Managers of Social Services emphasize that, although many local entities have increased their budgets for urgently needed aid in the last two years, “bureaucratic procedures and the rigidity of municipal interventions limit access or delay the collection and, therefore, the effectiveness of the aid”.
In this sense, he regrets that there are municipalities that can take up to two months to provide emergency social aid and the obstacles when justifying them before the intervention “are difficult and humiliating.”
In his opinion, “the strict interpretation of the norm, which considers these aids as subsidies”, is one of the causes of this situation, so it is urgent to modify it or interpret it in a less rigorous way.
FINANCING WITH CONTRADICTORY PROCEDURES
Precisely, it points out that some autonomous communities have increased this financing with “parallel and contradictory” procedures to overcome the bureaucratic difficulties imposed by the interpretation of the Law on Subsidies by the General Intervention of the State Administration.
The association estimates the percentage of the Spanish population that needs help to cover their most basic needs at 8.3%, such as eating meat, chicken or fish at least every two days or keeping the home at the right temperature.
In general, a person is considered to be in a situation of severe material and social deprivation if they declare that they have deficiencies in at least seven of the following elements: they cannot afford to go on vacation for at least one week a year; you cannot afford a meal of meat, poultry or fish at least every other day; or can afford to keep the home at an adequate temperature; It does not have the capacity to face unforeseen expenses (700 euros); you have had delays in the payment of expenses related to the main residence (mortgage or rent, gas bills, community) or in installment purchases in the last 12 months; you cannot afford to own a car; or cannot replace damaged or old furniture.
Nor can he afford to replace damaged clothes with new ones; you cannot afford to have two pairs of shoes in good condition; you cannot afford to meet friends or family for a meal or drink at least once a month; you cannot afford to regularly participate in leisure activities; he can’t afford to spend a small amount of money on himself and he can’t afford internet connection.
APPLY “EFFECTIVE MEASURES”
For all this, they ask the Government to adopt “effective measures” so that these people can receive the necessary aid with the immediacy that their situation requires, for what they see as “essential and urgent” to modify the norm so that they are exempt from the General Law of Subsidies , including them in Article 2.4 of the General Subsidies Law, with the addition of a new section with the following wording: “Emergency aid and/or social urgency granted by the social services of Local Entities to cover basic needs of citizens and families.
In addition, they consider that the General Intervention of the State Administration “should send an instruction to the municipal auditors so that they expedite emergency financial aid.”
In short, raise the need to repeal the administrative procedure that causes social emergency aid to be treated as any subsidy (even millionaire) to an entity, and link its granting and payment to agile procedures based on the optional social prescription of the health care professional. reference of the municipal Social Services.
