Five years waiting to receive the orphan's pension
The Catalan government takes years to pay benefits and late payment interest to at least forty young people who were formerly under guardianship.
BarcelonaA young woman who was formerly under the guardianship of the Generalitat (Catalan government) has had to wait up to five years to receive her orphan's pension payments in her account.former DGAIA –currently converted into DGPPIA– saved until reaching the age of majority. The young woman is now twenty-three and has suddenly received 15,000 euros, but hers is not the only case of unjustified delays in this group of young people.
When the administration takes over the legal guardianship of a child orphaned of one or both parents, it also receives the orphan's pensions to which they are entitled from Social Security and sets aside money until they turn eighteen and can freely access it. In principle, the funds are deposited into an account in the name of the minor beneficiary, and the Generalitat (Catalan government) acts only as a supervisor. One of the victims claims that she was told that "nobody knew" where her account was. "It's true that the DGAIA (Directorate General for Child and Adolescent Care) saved me and has taken care of me for many years, but I also feel robbed by those who were supposed to look after me," she laments.
Benefits for former wards of the state have been backlogged for years, long before the undue payments detected this summer and which ultimately came to nothing after it was demonstrated that in most cases it was due to an error on the part of the administration itself. The labyrinth of the bureaucratic circuit is shrouded in laws and modifications that make it very difficult to understand. In fact, the former foster care girl found out that she had been receiving orphan's pension money when the Tax Office issued her an audit for not having declared this income on her first tax return. "I didn't know what they were talking about," she says. And from then on, she discovered that somewhere a bank account in her name was waiting for her.
Until 2017, both the non-contributory benefits and the orphan's pensions to which foster children were entitled served to cover the expenses derived from their care in centers or foster families. That year, after receiving several complaints from those affected, the Catalan Ombudsman (Síndic de Greuges) opened an investigation which determined that the model violated children's rights because they ended up paying for a free public service—their care—which was even included in the social services portfolio. In this vein, the Catalan Parliament introduced an annex to Law 5/2017 on tax measures, amending the 2010 Law on the Rights and Opportunities of Children and Adolescents and, consequently, the 2012 instruction that legitimized the Catalan government's provision of the benefit. The new regulation established that the orphan's pension cannot be withheld and has become part of the assets of the minor under guardianship and, therefore, cannot be used to finance maintenance expenses. No regulations yet in place.
However, this amendment, which would have benefited minors, was never implemented because no government ever drafted or approved the necessary supplementary regulations to put the law into effect. It was necessary to wait three more years, until July during the pandemic, when additional provisions 8 and 9 of Law 14/2010 on the rights and opportunities of children and adolescents were finally approved. In other words, all that technical jargon authorized the department to "create the appropriate mechanism to ensure the full reimbursement of orphan's benefits and pensions withheld and not received by children and adolescents under guardianship since the entry into force of Law 5/2017." The text implied an admission that these children had been mistreated, as they had been deprived of money that belonged to them, but the reimbursements were postponed until the fiscal year following the law's entry into force, that is, "January 1, 2022." What has happened in the time leading up to the end of 2025, when at least forty orphaned former foster children have not received what they were owed? The Department of Social Rights and Inclusion, headed by Councilor Mònica Martínez Bravo, maintains that all amounts have been paid since then, with interest, "but the procedure to identify and locate all the young people is lengthy." Sources familiar with the situation agree that it is incomprehensible, especially considering that this group often reaches adulthood without a responsible adult. "The delays illustrate the extent to which the DGPPIA is in disarray," says one technician.
Letter
Recently, the regional minister sent 35 young people a four-page letter, full of technical jargon and references to laws, instructions, and regulations that were difficult to read, in which she announced the payment of amounts owed since January 1, 2022, but left open the question of when the late payment interest would be reimbursed. This interest, the text continues, will have to be calculated in accordance with "Article 25 of Legislative Decree 3/2002, of December 24, which approves the consolidated text of the Public Finance Law of Catalonia." According to the department, the process is not yet complete, and they assure that the interest will be paid. However, they do not justify the reason for the delay. One of the affected individuals criticizes the fact that, after so many years of waiting, she has not received any explanation or justification for how the paid amounts have been applied, nor how the interest will be calculated. Furthermore, the professionals who work with this group question the practice of these young people receiving large sums of money all at once without adult guidance. "Many get lost when they see so much money," one says. This won't happen to the young woman mentioned at the beginning of this article. "The money is my future, and I've saved it for an apartment, and now it's as if I don't have it," she affirms.
