More than Two million Catalans receive care from organizations gathered at the Roundtable of Third Sector Social Entities, which is confident that Parliament will approve, after three years, the third sector law which must recognize the work carried out by professionals and volunteers. Since May 2025, Xavier Trabado Farré has been its president, replacingEnric Morist, died suddenly

Despite the positive economic figures and from low unemploymentPoverty has increased by 0.8 percentage points in Catalonia over the past year. This breaks the trend of a modest reduction that began in 2021 thanks to the injection of aid from the social safety net approved in response to the pandemic crisis. According to the latest Living Conditions Survey, published this Thursday by the Statistical Institute of Catalonia (Idescat), 24.8% of the Catalan population is poor and lives with material deprivation. This worsening social situation has not surprised organizations and NGOs, which have been noticing an increase in demand for their services for months. among people who have a jobThe poverty threshold is set at incomes below €13,800 for a single person and €29,100 for two adults and two children, and, in fact, precariousness is particularly affecting children under 16. Child poverty—children living in impoverished families—is a major failing in Catalonia, which ranks among the European regions with the highest number of minors experiencing basic deprivation. In the 0-16 age group, poverty has increased (another year) by 1.3 percentage points, half a point higher than the overall rate, bringing the number of children living in precarious situations to 36.1% of the total. This is the highest percentage of child poverty recorded in the last decade, while a decision is pending on whether to implement a universal childcare benefit so that Spain ceases to be one of the few European countries without a known effective measure.

"You feel like an island when you migrate, in the middle of an ocean of red tape." Tatiana Cárdenas, a recently naturalized Colombian citizen, used this phrase to describe the shortcomings of the reception system and support services for the new wave of immigration. A report presented this Thursday by the Third Sector Roundtable, based on data and interviews, fully echoes her words, describing the system as outdated, overly rigid, and bureaucratic for the diverse needs and profiles of the people arriving in this wave of migration that has brought Catalonia's population to eight million. Cárdenas's sentiment is common among immigrants who have no alternative but to enter the country irregularly because the legal route is nonexistent: they encounter obstacles ranging from the impossibility of registering with the local authorities to being unable to work legally or study beyond compulsory education because of the law regarding irregular status. Cárdenas admits that she was "privileged" because she entered the country as a companion thanks to her husband's employment contract, but even so, she couldn't avoid the obstacle course of ceasing to be isolated and integrating into the community. Cárdenas, currently an active member of Fedelatina and self-employed, complained that the reception system forces migrants to "solve everything at once." The Catalan language course, registering with the local council, earning a living during the years of irregular status to survive, finding housing... "You have to keep checking boxes, but you can't wait until you have a good level of language to start working," she argues. Beside her, Venezuelan Jaime Samuel Vergara also raises the difficulties faced by international asylum seekers, and the young Moroccan woman Hiba Jaoui gives voice to the life of a minor who arrived alone and has been placed under guardianship. She is now studying for a vocational qualification and says she feels supported, but she also remembers the "racism" she suffered at the reception center.

Not everyone who is entitled to social benefits receives them. Some don't even apply for them because they either don't know they're entitled to them or don't even apply for them. This is a phenomenon known as non-take-up or coverage gap, leaving thousands of vulnerable people without protection. It is estimated that in Catalonia, 79% of families with children who could receive the childhood supplement do not; 18% of people who meet the requirements for the guaranteed citizen income do not benefit, and 66% of potential users of the minimum living income (IMV) do not either.

To the prejudices pointed out by feminist women, immigrants, poor people, Roma people or the LGBTIQ community, we must add the impact of misinformation, the lies that spread like wildfire through virtual profiles. It is not that false information is a modern scenario, but in the last decade there has been "a turning point", starting with Brexit and the first elections in which Donald Trump won in the US.

Massive farewell to Enric Morist, president of the Third Sector Roundtable, died of a heart attack at the age of 59. On Friday, May 2nd, in Igualada, the farewell ceremony for the activist, who for two decades had been coordinator of the Catalan Red Cross, was attended by family, friends, members of social organizations, as well as a broad political representation, led by the Minister of Social Rights and Inclusion, Mònica Martínez Bravo, and a large part of the senior management. Former President Pere Aragonès and former advisors from different governments who had treated Morist also attended. The large turnout at the funeral home in the capital of Anoia on Monday made it necessary to hold the ceremony outside, where the simple coffin was received with applause.

The 3,000 third-sector organizations (ranging from those dealing with childhood and poverty issues to leisure and mental health) surpassed the two million-person mark last year. However, the growth in activity is not accompanied by stable funding, and this lack of funding forces associations to go into debt. Without going any further, 41% of these organizations are still waiting for public administrations to pay their committed amounts, according to the conclusions of the barometer presented by the Third Sector Roundtable of Catalonia with data from the year ended 2023. Public debt for that year increased by 5% compared to 2021, with the Generalitat (Catalan government) being the most delinquent administration, followed by local councils. "This causes tensions in the treasury," says Marta Campo, a member of the Roundtable's board, an umbrella entity for organizations and federations. To continue operating, the largest organizations have the strength to take out credit policies with which they obtain a line of financing to manage their day-to-day operations. On the other hand, smaller companies must seek more drastic solutions, such as delaying scheduled activities, a solution that directly affects users and the quality of service.

The income of the highest-earning 20% of Catalans is almost five times (4.6, exactly) greater than that of the lowest-earning 20% of the population. This difference highlights the social inequality in Catalonia, a gap that has remained at similar percentages for a decade. While there has been a slight improvement since the pandemic, the poverty rate remains at 25% of the population. It is still higher. among those under 18 years of age, which reaches 34%, and even more so among the immigrant population, where it rises to 45%.