Madrid EFE).- The dependency system served 1.3 million people in 2022 -91,295 more than in 2021-, although 353,965 continue with pending procedures without receiving services and benefits, with a wait that lasts on average almost one anus.
These are some of the data from the evaluation presented this Friday by the State Observatory of the Unit that shows the unequal application in the different communities of the system, which despite the reduction of 15,923 people on the waiting list, registers 45,360 deaths without receiving care requested.
The communities with the largest number of people pending to receive benefits are Catalonia (27.1%), La Rioja (18.9%) and the Basque Country (17.5%); and those that least, Castilla y León (0.18%), Castilla-La Mancha (3.71%) and Aragón (4%).
Three regions increased the waiting list despite having received the budget increase from the shock plan to reduce it: Asturias (increased it by 34.7%), the Balearic Islands (31%) and the Region of Murcia (29.6%).
They have met that objective: La Rioja (which reduced it by 45.8%), Aragón (43.7%), Cantabria (36%) and the Canary Islands (28.9%).
“The Government of Spain has complied with the budget increase of the shock plan for dependency, but the bureaucracy and inexperience of some regional governments do not allow achieving the objective of reducing the waiting list and increasing benefits and services, not even execute the budget increase”, explained the president of the observatory and of the Association of Directors and Managers of Social Services, José Manuel Ramírez.
“Even ten communities made cash with the budget increase of the central Executive by reducing their own budget,” he denounced. These are Aragon, the Canary Islands, Castilla y León, Castilla-La Mancha, Extremadura, Galicia, Murcia, Navarra, the Basque Country and La Rioja.
The wait: 977 days in the Canary Islands, 125 in Castilla y León
The average time from the dependency request to the benefit resolution is 344 days, although it ranges from 977 days in the Canary Islands, to 125 in Castilla y León.
If the rate of reduction of the waiting list last year is maintained, it will take eleven to achieve full care for dependents, warns the head of the observatory.
“It has only been reduced by 15,923 people (8.28%) and if we add it to the 38,807 in 2021, they do not even reach the 60,000 that the shock plan set as its objective for the first year” and that it expected a reduction of 25, 8%, has detailed.
The evaluation warns of the increase in 2022 of the people waiting for an assessment, which were 131,810 people, 7,214 more than in 2021 when they were 124,596.
To these are added 177,423 people who already have the right recognized but still do not receive care, another 22,829 with a resolution of the Individual Care Program (PIA) without benefits and 21,903 applicants that the communities have not registered and are pending assessment. In total, 353,965 people are waiting for a procedure.
The report highlights “the surprising capacity to generate employment” -32,522 new ones were created in 2022- and the economic returns of the system, in which 316,215 people work.
Of the 45,360 people who died on the dependency’s waiting lists -one person every 12 minutes-, 19,661 were pending resolution of the degree of dependency and 25,699 had not been able to exercise their rights. 80% were over 80 years old.
The financial benefits for family care have an average monthly amount of 234.96 euros (currently received by 517,000 people): 139 euros for Grade I dependents; 240 for Grade II and 335 for Grade III.
Regarding the benefit for a place of residence, it ranges between 445 euros for Grade II and 550 for the highest level; Home Help is 33 hours a month on average and two and a half hours a day from Monday to Friday for the most severely dependent.
“Telecare and other low cost services are growing, while the amounts of benefits for family care or those linked to the service have not increased,” he says.
The direct cost of benefits and services amounted to 9,717 million euros: 7,723 assumed by the administrations and 1,995 by users.
Of direct public spending, the General State Administration increased financing by 1,842 million, reaching 34% of spending, while the communities reduced their contribution, financing 66%.
The notes by communities
Huge inequalities between territories continue both in coverage and in management models.
Nine communities manage to pass in the general evaluation of the application of the system, with Castilla y León at the head (8.5), followed by Castilla-La Mancha (7.9), Andalucía (7.6), Madrid (6.5 ), Valencian Community (6.2), Balearic Islands (5.6), La Rioja (5.3), Galicia (5.3) and Navarra (5).
Suspended: Murcia (2.4), Canary Islands (2.9), Catalonia (3.5), Cantabria (3.5), Asturias (3.5), Basque Country (3.8), Ceuta and Melilla (4 .4), Aragon (4.4) and Extremadura (4.7).
The entry Dependency in 2022: 91,000 more treated, while 45,000 died waiting was first published in EFE Noticias.