Former guardians on their claim for benefits: "We are being unfairly persecuted"
In an open letter, the group accuses Social Rights of exercising "institutional aggression" by accusing them without evidence.
BarcelonaMore than a hundred young people who were formerly under the care of the Generalitat (Catalan government) have complained of feeling like the scapegoat for poor management by the administration and for the Audit Office's criticism of the €167 million in social benefits paid to people who no longer met the requirements. As reported by ARA, the Directorate General for the Prevention and Protection of Children and Adolescents (DGPPIA) has begun to investigate the matter. Send hundreds of these children messages demanding thousands of euros for "undue non-payments" and gives them ten days to present their allegations. These amounts exceed 10,000 euros, and in many cases even 30,000.
In an open letter published this Friday, these young people lament that they have been "targeted," with communications sent to them "without prior notice" and "indiscriminately" accused of having received payments without their right. "We are being unfairly persecuted," they exclaim in a brief text in which they assert that they have not committed "any fraud or crime."
The young people reproach the administration that protected them during their childhood for now "violating their right to the presumption of innocence" and for having gone from offering them institutional protection to "institutional aggression" because the claim—they claim—does not provide evidence of any responsibility or error on their part. "Everything they say about me is a lie. I've always worked [with a salary] within the limits" to be able to combine benefits and salary, denounces one of the young women from whom they are demanding 32,000 euros. "What they're asking of us is brutal. How do they expect us to repay it?" asks another of the recipients of the letter. "We are victims, not executioners," they write in the open letter, in which they also call on civil society, social and legal entities, and the media to support them. "We cannot allow this injustice to be silenced. We need help. Dissemination. Voice. Support. Justice."
About to turn 23
The recipients of the emailed letters all have in common that they are about to turn 23, when they must leave the protection system permanently and find their own way, because most of them do not have financial support from their biological family or even contact with them. The review has begun with the files from 2021, a year before the service was outsourced to a joint venture formed by the Mercè Miralles i Resilis Foundation, and which are about to expire because four years have passed, a situation the department found itself in when it went to the Ministry of Health in October of last year. Claim part of the guaranteed income from thousands of vulnerable families and it goes end up granting them amnesty.
Catalonia is the only region in Spain where these young people continue to be protected past the age of majority because the difficulties they must go through in becoming independent are understood. Until the age of 23, they must follow an individualized plan (savings, hygiene, behavior, studies, etc.) if they want to be included in the program, have a place in a center or supervised apartment, and receive a benefit, which is currently €778.84 per month (set on the same scale as other social benefits, through social security benefits). If they work or have an income, the aid is reduced proportionally. "This financial support aims to guarantee a minimum stability to continue their studies, access housing, or build a decent life," they write. Laura is one of the signatories of the text and claims that she has "always" submitted all her payslips to the administration, to the point that "for a year now" she has saved the extra thousand euros she knows she will have to pay, but no one has yet asked her to return. They are demanding 36,000 euros from her and she complains that the letter was sent to her, without going through her representatives or the entity that accompanies her and criticizes the administration for not taking into account the vulnerabilities of these children. "They have handled it terribly," she concludes.
Despite all the difficulties, the former wards manage to have much higher employment rates than young people who grow up with their family, according to a recent survey conducted by FEPA, the federation of entities working for the emancipation of these young people.
