MadridCongress has definitively approved the major reform of the dependency law. Also a reform of the disability law. They represent a change regarding economic resources and bureaucratic procedures that have to do, among other things, with a reinforcement of personal autonomy and an expansion of services, especially regarding attention and care for elderly people, and the restrictions introduced in previous stages. The Minister of Social Rights, Pablo Bustinduy, when presenting the changes in July, said that the reform is a "refounding of our care system". These are the key points:
Rights
To begin with, universal accessibility is recognized as a right, so it may be claimed in any instance. Telecare becomes a subjective right for any person with a recognized dependency and will include a bracelet with geolocation.
The regime of incompatibilities for receiving different benefits and services at the same time, such as going to a day center and having home care, is also ended. In this area, the regulation is modernized and expands the focus beyond blood relatives and recognizes new models of coexistence so that people in the environment without family ties (roommates, neighbors, or unofficial partners) can register as primary caregivers and, therefore, can contribute to social security for carrying out this task.
More resources
The reform involves the validation of a decree law to force the State to contribute, for the first time, 50% of the funding for the services provided for in the dependency law, although it would not be reached until a few years from now. For example, the State will double the transfers to the autonomous regions for this concept with a record of 7,239.4 million next year, conditioned on the fulfillment of a series of criteria with the aim that the communities increase the coverage in services and in more hours of care.
New services
New services are planned, such as home care for people with high support needs, and existing services are also being reinforced. In fact, the creation of the "personal assistance" role stands out, which is designed to accompany the user in daily activities such as going shopping or to medical appointments with the aim of covering needs beyond domestic care and nursing to try to delay as much as possible the move to a care home.
Procedures
Bureaucracy is reduced. Procedures are streamlined (to resolve a recognition of a dependency situation it will be necessary to wait 3 months and not 6 as until now) and a single gateway is created for dependency and disability that must avoid the duplication of procedures, so that the degree of dependency I (the lowest) will be equivalent directly to having 33% disability recognized, and II and III up to 65%.
However, the new scenario should benefit the 300,000 dependent people and the 130,000 on the waiting list in Catalonia, the community with the longest waiting list, which has already approved a shock plan to streamline procedures for collecting aid while the turn for a residential place does not arrive. Every day about thirty Catalans die without having received aid.
The Generalitat will create 2,300 new residential places this year
The Government will launch a call for tenders in the coming weeks to contract a total of 2,300 new residential places throughout Catalonia before the end of the year, half of which will be for the elderly. This will involve an investment of more than 21.6 million euros this year and 133 million in 2027.
The executive ensures that it will practically meet the goal set for the entire legislature of creating 6,000 places, following the 3,200 already generated. "Before the year ends, we will have created practically all the pledged places," stressed the Minister of Social Rights and Inclusion, Raül Moreno.
About half of the places will be destined for the elderly, and the rest will allow for the expansion of the offer of day centers, care for people with disabilities and mental health problems, and early intervention.
From the opposition, Junts has criticized "the triumphalist tone" of the minister, which it believes "hides a government crisis" and, with different tones, ERC and PP have demanded more concreteness in the announced plans and agility in carrying them out.