The Generalitat (Catalan Government) is promoting debt forgiveness for young people who have been formerly in care and received improper payments.

BarcelonaThe Minister of Social Rights, Mònica Martínez Bravo, has admitted that the department she heads was operating until 2023 with a great lack of resources, both human and technical, which has led to part of the problems in relation to the economic benefits This was denounced by the Audit Office and detailed by Ombudsman Maria Àngels Cabasés in Parliament on Thursday. "The benefits were managed with software equivalent to a notepad; the scope of the benefits was designed without sufficient technical rigor," said Martínez Bravo, who took advantage of her speech before the parliamentary committee to announce that they will promote debt forgiveness for young people in former care who improperly received financial benefits. This announcement by the minister came after Cabasés presented 27 conclusions stemming from the audit of the department's accounts, which concluded that almost 168 million euros were paid improperly between 2016 and 2024. However, according to the minister, 70 million euros of those 168 million euros have already been recovered, and the majority—up to 90%—will eventually be repaid.

The Minister of Social Rights has attempted to emphasize that these improper payments are commonplace within the administration, although she admitted that they are "considerable" amounts that cannot be "minimized." A few minutes before Martínez Bravo's intervention, however, Cabasés asserted that the Catalan administration has not exercised "its inspection and supervisory functions" and this has represented a "stripping away of the Generalitat's Treasury." In fact, more than 7 million of these improper payments have already expired and cannot be recovered. This situation, according to Cabasés, "does not respond to administrative errors" but to "structural problems," and could give rise to incidents that can be pursued "administratively and judicially" because there are "indications of liability."

A fact denied by the minister, who, however, has admitted that the administration "has not been sufficiently agile" in this area. According to Martínez Bravo, the detection of improper payments in 2023—during the Pere Aragonès administration—was not a "sign of lack of control" but rather of "good management," because few administrations have the capacity to detect these payments, which are actually "inconsistencies in the amount paid" to beneficiaries who change. "Undue payment in itself is not an irregularity; the administration has four years to compensate it. It's problematic if it expires. This is where irregularities can occur," she said, adding that this summer debts about to expire were detected and the affected people were notified, which is a "shock," because it often comes as a "shock," because often the harm cannot fall on vulnerable people.

The regional minister gave a graphic example of the lack of staff, which, combined with the lack of digitalization, leads to the problems detected. In 2023, it became clear that there were 26 vacant positions in the management of guaranteed income, almost a quarter of the total number of professionals. In this regard, she explained that the shock plan launched in 2023 made it possible to go from reviewing 10 percent of guaranteed income files to the current 100 percent. Now all files are reviewed monthly, and Martínez Bravo has announced that the department has been strengthened with the creation of 16 new units and the addition of 306 professionals.

Young people in care

One of the committee's key points—and one that Vox has used to distort the data—is the one affecting young people who were formerly under guardianship by the former Directorate General for Child and Adolescent Care (DGAIA). The ombudsman highlighted the "conflict of interest" in the management of aid to these former wards and the entities that receive funding from both the Department of Social Rights and the Department of Business and Employment. She gave the example of the joint venture formed by the Mercè Fontanilles Foundation and the Resilis Foundation, which obtained a €5.8 million contract. According to the Audit Office, €4.7 million were improperly paid to these young people between September 2019 and December 2022. A case that the ARA advanced, jointly in October, in January, which explained that the lack of supervision causes the department to pay a benefit to young people who are already working. The ARA also uncovered another irregularity detected Within the DGAIA: some entities falsified aid to young people by creating phantom positions.

Martínez Bravo has admitted that progress in this area has been "slower" and less "substantial." The department is analyzing each of these young people's files, who in most cases received improper payments because "they started working" and the administration adjusted the benefit "months late." Since these are people in vulnerable situations, if it is detected that the young person has not acted "in bad faith," the Government wants to promote debt forgiveness. A request that is passed on to the political parties.

On the other hand, the head of Social Rights has presented the preliminary results of the audit of the Service for Monitoring and Evaluation of Economic Benefits for Young People in Care (SEVAP) and the joint venture of the Mercè Fontanilles Foundation and the Resilis Foundation. Thus, he explained that the company did not do "enough" to prevent improper payments and, if the "indications" are confirmed, the department will consider the "actions to be taken." He also admitted that this control and monitoring of public aid has been excessively "outsourced."

Beyond the controversy surrounding young people who have left care, the ombudsman's intervention also focused on the inadequacy of the benefits currently available, as another 1.183 billion euros would be needed. "Only half of the people who are entitled to the main benefits actually access them," said Cabasés, justifying this on two grounds: a lack of awareness of the existence of these benefits and the difficulties in processing them. She pointed out that there are "duplicate benefits that could be merged or simplified," "lengthy timescales" for managing benefits, and a regional disparity that doesn't take into account the cost of living. "Receiving a benefit in Barcelona is not the same as receiving it in Lleida," Cabasés explained.

For her part, Martínez Bravo indicated that the day will come when the Catalan government "is proactive in contacting a person who is likely to receive a benefit."