The Government launches the wallet card, with money to purchase food and basic hygiene products for families in poverty with dependent children. This system, which will begin operating on May 1, will be financed with the state tranche of the European Social Fund Plus. The program has more than 600 million euros over seven years and it is estimated that it will help around 70,000 families in that period (10,000 annually).
This program replaces the food bank program financed by the European FEAD Funds for disadvantaged people, as agreed by Brussels. The Ministry of Social Rights and the autonomous communities decided in a territorial council at the end of 2021 to switch to the wallet card system.
Although food banks will stop receiving European funding, this will not mean their disappearance since they will be able to continue acting with other public and private funding sources, sources from the Ministry of Social Rights say.
Temporarily (from May to December), the Ministry of Social Rights will manage the process, until the communities have launched the system, since they are the ones with the powers in social services. The decree approved today by the Council of Ministers grants the direct granting, “on an exceptional basis and for humanitarian reasons”, of a subsidy to the Spanish Red Cross to launch the European Social Fund Plus program of basic material assistance for families with children or dependent adolescents in a situation of severe material deprivation or extreme conditions of vulnerability, approved by the European Commission.
These wallet cards will be delivered by the autonomous communities (either from their social services or through the third sector entities that the administrations choose), which will have previously chosen the families that need this help. The requirement is that they have dependent children and that they do not exceed 40% of the average income. The amounts that these families will receive will depend on the number of members: 1 adult and one child, 130 euros per month; three people (adults and child or adult and two children), 160 euros; four people, 190 and 5 or more, 220 euros.
The card will be recharged every month, every two months or every three months at most, as the communities decide, and each family will be able to have this help for a maximum of one year.
With this card, families will be able to buy in previously indicated establishments, with which an agreement will have been signed, which will also include the products they can purchase. For example, if you buy milk you can pay with this card, but not alcohol. Yes compresses, but no makeup. There will be a list with the products to be purchased that the establishment will have. When the family goes to buy, the computer system of the associated business will say what can or cannot be paid with that card.
This new system allows families to purchase fresh products, something they could not do in the food banks that operated with two centralized purchases (the next purchase was to be made on May 1, but not anymore. Hence the intervention of urgency of the Government).
The change in program is explained because the European Commission decided that it was necessary to focus aid on children. The Ministry of Social Rights and the communities then decided to change the system that has worked until now (food banks, intended for the general population), to that of the wallet card. This program should be managed by the autonomous communities but, due to technical and electoral issues, the process is slow, so the Government has decided, temporarily, to take charge of the management of the cards and the agreements with the establishments, until on January 1, 2025. Then, each community will choose the type of card it uses (or continues with the one designed by the Ministry of Social Rights) and will reach agreements with the establishments it considers.
Pablo Bustinduy’s department insists that it is the responsibility of the communities to carry out this program, but that in an exceptional manner the Government will launch it for eight months.
