Care for the dependent is the great subject pending in a country that keeps repeating that it is necessary to protect the elderly (74% of dependent people are over 65, and 52% over 80) and that, despite this, it has become common for the Law of Dependency (2006) not to be complied with. In 2023 (from December 2022 to November 2023), a person died every 13 minutes without being able to receive the attention that by right establishes this rule. A total of 111 every day. 40,447 per year.
“A shameful reality that hides a path full of suffering. We cannot allow it because it is very likely that we or one of our loved ones will require this care sooner or later”, says Jose Manuel Ramírez, spokesperson for the State Association of Directors and Managers of Social Services.
These people who died without attention were part of the almost 300,000 who make up the eternal waiting lists (179,244 who have been assessed and are waiting for the service, and 117,181 who are pending assessment by the relevant teams). About 46.2% of people who, despite having the right recognized, do not receive it are dependents with degrees III or II, that is to say, they need extensive and continuous support every day.
Despite how voluminous the figure is, the waiting list has been reduced by 36,671 people compared to 2022, thanks in part to the shock plan that the autonomous communities and the Ministry of Social Rights established two years ago, a plan accompanied by money from the General Administration of the State (more than 4,000 million euros), but which more than half of the communities have used to reduce their contribution. The part that the Spanish Government now puts in already represents 40% of the cost of the dependency compared to 20% three years ago. The communities, for their part, the remaining 60%.
This is indicated by the XXIV Observatory of Dependency prepared by the State Association of Directors and Managers of Social Services, presented yesterday and which points to the bureaucratic labyrinth as the factor that explains the “abandonment” of the most vulnerable. Bureaucracy and, moreover, a reduction in the contribution of most communities.
The average processing time for a file is 324 days, although in four communities it is well over twelve months (Canaries, Andalusia, Murcia and Galicia).
Only five territories are below or close to the six months that the law establishes as a deadline for this processing: the communities of the Basque Country, Castile and Leon, Navarra, Cantabria and Ceuta. Most of the applicants who died waiting for service that the law recognizes were over 80 years old.
But what about the 1.4 million people who receive care from the dependency service? Well, they mostly receive a low cost service.
According to the observatory, financial benefits for family care have an average monthly amount of 240.17 euros (currently received by 558,234 people); an amount that ranges between 171 euros for the mildest dependents (grade I) and 369, for the most severe.
And those who go to a residence? The economic benefits linked to the acquisition of a service vary greatly depending on the same, but they present insufficient amounts. Suffice it to say that the linked benefit to pay for a residential care place oscillates around 516.20 and 575.70 euros for the most serious dependents.
The difference between this amount and the price actually paid by the person in a residence (which will easily triple this amount) constitutes a second co-payment or invisible co-payment”, they report in this entity.
And home help? Judge: home help has an average hourly intensity of 33.8 hours per month from Monday to Friday; it is, by degree of dependence, from 15.8 hours for the mildest to 38 hours per month for those with degree II and 57.9 hours per month for those with degree III. “In other words, barely two and a half hours per day from Monday to Friday for the latter, which is clearly insufficient if we understand that they are people who need support on a permanent basis”, the report points out.
The report also assesses how the Spanish Government and communities’ shock plan is being developed to put an end to waiting lists and expand services and benefits. Although more people have been served since it was launched (287,636), “the inequalities between territories remain both in terms of coverage and management models”, he points out. In addition, it has not been possible to reduce the waiting list as much as expected and it has also not met the objective of establishing teleassistance for every person with a recognized degree of dependency who lives at home, which means increase its coverage to 100%. 64.2% of people cared for at home do not have this teleassistance service. Nor to increase the hours of the home service.
