More than 660 people with a high degree of disability are left without support monitors due to lack of funds: "What do we do now?"

BarcelonaWith 2025 over, the budget for the Plan that provided some relief to families with members with severe disabilities has also run out. "What should we do now?" they ask, exhausted by the scarcity of the so-called breathsTemporary stay programs in residences for people with disabilities so that families can have a break. Furthermore, these are families forcibly impoverished so that the dependency or disability entails an additional economic cost in therapies, prostheses, and caregivers that are not always covered by the public administration.

Since December 31, 2025, the monitors and educators who, thanks to the Family Support Plan, offered care to dependent children and elderly adults for a few hours no longer do so because the contract with the The Department of Social Rights and Inclusion has been dissolved. The service will not resume until a new allocation is approved. The stoppage leaves families without support and forces them to reorganize and hire specialized monitors out of their own pockets to fill the gap:Forget about having a moment of rest"—complains Marina Frank, mother of an elderly dependent child.

The abrupt end of a service due to lack of funds is not uncommon in the social services sector, which, unlike the education and healthcare sectors, operates through contracts and subsidies to organizations and foundations that often continue working to cover their expenses, even if it means going into debt. One statistic illustrates the necessary adjustments to the social services delivery system, many of which are not included in the legally protected catalog: "There are 18 agreements with Social Rights," emphasizes Jordi Corominas, technical coordinator of Dincat. These agreements cover 665 families with a pool of 62,000 hours of care. Most of these beneficiaries have lost this support."

Without caregivers to look after these individuals who require constant attention, families "are overwhelmed," says Mari Tavira, who has a young son with autism. She emphasizes that this break from professional, external care within the family allows them to "live." For example, in her case, she notes that the two hours a day (Monday to Friday) when she received assistance were used for everyday, "normal" things for most people, such as shopping, showering, socializing, or reading.

Frank and Tavira are members of the Union of Mothers in Functional DiversityA group that also includes sisters criticizes organizations like Dincat for not always "fighting hard enough" to achieve the rights they demand. "I can't leave my son with a neighbor; my husband or I always have to be there" in case he has a meltdown or other situations that require careful handling, explains Frank, who says the end of the public project has forced the couple to "change their family logistics" so their child is never left alone. Tavira describes showering alone with the child as "impossible" because she always has to be vigilant to make sure he doesn't hurt himself. Corominas expresses "understanding" of the families' complaints but insists on emphasizing that the social sector is subject to negotiation and renewal. ordinary call for grants to projects and entities – known as COSPE – We are working with government agencies to ensure the continuity of programs and activities, and to pay the professionals and for the materials provided by the organizations. The family support plan for 2026 will be launched—no one doubts that—but as of now, the Department of Social Rights has not established any timeline. In some cases, the organizations are maintaining services by advancing the educators' salaries because they are confident that the public funding will eventually arrive. Dincat is the entity that manages the programBut ultimately, it is the service providers who implement the plan. These providers decide, based on pre-established criteria, the number of support hours each beneficiary requires according to their needs. The program was launched in 2016 in only six districts and with 178 families, and although it has tripled the number of beneficiaries, it still only covers 24 of Catalonia's 42 districts. There is a clear territorial inequality, admits Corominas, who argues that more and more organizations are gradually joining the program. The main demand from both families and organizations is for an update to the social services portfolio, the guide that guarantees benefits and services (as is the case with Social Security or compulsory education), which has not changed since 2010, to adapt to the needs of the population.