"They're going to screw the weakest among us": the Generalitat (Catalan government) is demanding thousands of euros from young people who have been ex-confined for "improper payments."

The General Directorate for the Prevention and Protection of Children and Adolescents (DGPPIA, which replaces the DGAIA) has begun sending emails to young people who have left care to claim alleged "undue payments" of the benefits to which, by law, they are entitled from the age of majority until the age of 23. According to ARA, "hundreds" have been sent and the amounts claimed amount to more than 10,000 euros and, in some cases, the figure exceeds 36,000 euros. These messages are sent just two weeks after the The Audit Office estimates undue non-payments at 167 million euros. granted by the Department of Social Rights and Inclusion to some 230,000 families, of which 4.7 million (2.8%) corresponded to those given to young people who had spent part of their childhood in the care system. They are demanding around 30,000 euros. "I wanted to reassure him by telling him it must have been a mistake," explains the 22-year-old. "They're demanding that I be a high school student and I haven't had any absences that long, and I don't have any negative reports from my mentor," she tells this newspaper indignantly. "It seems like they're going to screw the weakest of us by putting spokes in our wheels; "Who can return these amounts?" asks the girl, who claims cases with "exaggerated amounts" have caused these young people to become nervous and have made their phones and WhatsApp messages explode. The refund file, once the review process is complete, must be reimbursed by the interested party. Nor will they understand that they have ten days from receiving the email to make the relevant allegations and submit the documentation. "Many will be left as true defaulters," she laments.

In the report, Ombudsman Maria Àngels Cabacés had found irregularities in the collection of the former care benefit from young people who were working or living outside of Catalonia, criteria that exclude them from being eligible for the aid. She attributed these improper payments to the department's own technological deficiencies in updating the beneficiaries' data and to the fact that it does not share data with the Treasury or Social Security. She recalculated the amount of the benefit she should have received. In response, she claims, she received a "you continue collecting the benefit and you'll notify the Treasury Department next year's tax return." They were unable to survive, unaware that, once they receive the benefit, since they already receive a salary, they will not be entitled to collect it, or at least not in full. She has a certified receipt.

Sources from the DGPPIA have confirmed to ARA that "hundreds of letters" have been processed so far and that until the end of the year, technicians will review the files of young people in whom improper payments were detected in 2021. The statute of limitations is about to expire, so for now, they don't know. This procedure is the result of the implementation of new mechanisms for managing and monitoring social benefits. announced in the reconstruction of the old DGAIA and which has led to the creation of a new specific sub-directorate. The agency defends the sending of these messages as a "legal obligation" in the face of "any evidence of improper payments." Last year, three months after Martínez Bravo's team took over the ministry, it also sent Letters to thousands of vulnerable families demanding "undue" amounts on account of the guaranteed citizen income and the Government subsequently resolved granting a collective "amnesty", considering that it was a "mistake" on the part of the administration itself. With the new batch of letters to former wards, the DGPPIA has indicated that it will have to wait for the outcome of the reviews before deciding what to do.