Dying without having collected dependency benefits: "You can't focus on the illness."

BarcelonaMore than 9,000 Catalans died last year waiting that they be recognized as having a degree of dependency or a benefit. This figure means that every hour a person dies unattended, without having received the right recognized in the dependency law. This is what happened to Alfredo M., Isabel Fernández's husband, who died at the age of 62 in mid-March, before his Individual Care Plan (PIA) was approved, which determines the benefits or services to which one is entitled based on disability. As a result of his death, the family You are not entitled to receive retroactively What the government didn't provide her during her lifetime due to year-long waiting lists. Despite her grief and pain, the widow finds strength to denounce a situation she considers "unfair."

To avoid situations like this, the Department of Social Rights and Inclusion claims to be "working on a regulatory change" that recognizes the heirs' rights. In a case like Fernández's, she cannot indeed receive any amount because "the right is generated from the moment the benefit is recognized," or when six months have passed since the PIA was requested (in this case, it is four). However, the Supreme Court recently ruled in favor of the widow of a dependent who died before any service was assigned to him and criticized "the delay," in this case by the Andalusian Regional Government, in processing the cases.

Due to Alfredo's worsening health due to metastatic cancer diagnosed a year earlier, the family began the process of applying for dependency benefits and thus receiving financial support or a service to cover the costs of his care. The man, who had been self-employed, had to stop working due to his illness and was left with a minimal pension. "A sick person has many extra expenses," explains Fernández, adding that They had to pay for taxis and caregivers, therapies to treat neuropathies, special creams not funded by Social Security, or the pharmacy protein shakes he'd been eating in recent weeks. "And add up the expenses!"

In November 2024, social workers determined that the man had a level II dependency (out of three) and a 66% disability. In total, he would have been entitled to about 200 euros per month, but the months went by. Fernández states that one of the specialists even tried to speed up the process due to the deteriorating health and loss of autonomy of the patient. Alfredo increasingly had less mobility and needed more help with their daily lifeThe same woman called the Premià de Mar Town Hall (where the family and the person in charge of assessing the dependency level live) and the Catalan government's citizen helpline to find out the status of the PIA. "One for another, nothing."

Without any benefits, the family had to scramble to find a way to care for the sick man. Fernández is on sick leave, but admits that so much bureaucracy doesn't help families or patients. "With so much paperwork, you can't focus on the illness, on the patient," Fernández exclaims. The only consolation she finds is that her husband "died thinking everything was resolved," since one of his greatest concerns was that the family wouldn't have any additional problems.

When Alfredo died, Fernández called the Generalitat (Catalan government) and, by phone, received the response that he wasn't entitled to any financial benefits because his death had occurred before the PIA resolution. "I don't understand it; we spend the entire illness doing paperwork for nothing," complains Fernández, who points out that there should be a "selection" of patients to determine the severity of each case. "There are cancer patients who don't get the benefits; they don't have time because everything moves so fast." On average, the PIA takes one year to process in Catalonia, a timeframe that the current team of Minister Mònica Martínez Bravo has set for itself. reduce up to nine months with a plan that eliminates paperwork and procedures.

The Valencian Exceptionality

Only the Valencian Community recognizes the right of families to collect benefits without PIA, according to José Manuel Ramírez, president of the State Observatory of Dependency, prepared by the State Association of Directors and Managers of Social Services. He also warns that it is "long and expensive" to claim rights through the courts. "But whoever does it, wins."

From the periodic analysis of the dependency system in all communities, Ramírez concludes that Catalonia's system has a "abandonment" for "six or seven years""of successive leaders and states that, rather than emergency plans, it is necessary to invest in strengthening the staff of basic municipal services, simplifying administrative processes, and authorizing nurses, not doctors, to carry out assessments. "Catalonia's problem is endemic; there is no solution to dependency in the next four years," he predicts.