From the labyrinth to the single window

When we go to a bakery to buy bread, we don't need to know how it's made. The baker knows the recipe, controls the times, and masters the craft. We simply leave with a loaf under our arm. It's a division of labor so obvious that we don't even think about it: whoever masters complexity is the one who solves it; the customer just takes the result.

a 66%, the second highest percentage in the StateAnd this has consequences. In Catalonia, two out of every three households entitled to the minimum vital income (MVI) do not receive it –66%, the second highest percentage in the State–. Not because there are not enough resources, but because the path to aid has become a labyrinth.

One of the most common responses is the single point of contact. "Agilitza't", a program promoted by Save the Children and which we evaluated from KSNET, shows that what helps families the most is not so much having a single entry point as having someone to guide them through the process. But here too there is a limit: if accessing a right requires specialized support, it means the system is still too complex. Support alleviates the problem, but it does not solve it.

Why, then, is accompaniment not enough? Because the burden is not on the citizen; it is on the design. This week, the III Catalan Congress of Public Management was held under the slogan "Thinking about citizens", and a simple idea was emphasized: a procedure that requires downloading a PDF, filling it out, and uploading it again for the administration to download it again is not digital transformation. It's the same old bureaucracy, but with an internet connection.

We have digitized the entry point, but not the processes behind it. The "Agilitza't" team often did what systems should do on their own: explain requirements, locate documents, and provide information that the administration already had. Support solves real problems, but it also highlights an administration that continues to transfer too much complexity to those who have the least capacity to manage it.

In 2026, the Generalitat will fully assume the management of the IMV and coordinate it with the guaranteed citizen income. It is an exceptional opportunity to correct one of the anomalies of the system: that two benefits aimed at the same households have functioned until now as if they were separate worlds. The transfer can serve to replicate the problem on a larger scale or to begin to dismantle it. What will determine the outcome will not be technology, but design. An administration that works resembles a good oven: complexity should be in the kitchen, not at the counter.