The Andalusian dependency system is currently not only experiencing problems due to waiting lists or the time needed to access a benefit. There is a serious problem of financing and economic resources. According to a November report from the Social Services and Dependency Agency itself, the deficit in 2024 reaches 165 million euros in the main benefits and services. In other words, there is a lack of the volume of resources necessary to make payments. Faced with this situation, the Junta de Andalucía has already started the procedures for modifying credits and extraordinary contributions to guarantee the functioning of the system. On November 19, in fact, the first of these transfers was authorized for an amount of 22 million euros coming from investments programmed at the ministry and linked to European funds but which are postponed until next year 2025. These 22 million euros have made it possible to pay ‘in extremis’ the due dates corresponding to the month of November. This transfer will be followed by others in the coming weeks, as confirmed by the Ministry of Social Inclusion: “The deficit will be filled by a reorientation of equity, generating new resources given that the objectives set by the ministry were reached across the country. benefits and with new new transfers which will be carried out by the Ministry of Finance. The origin of this deficit in the financing system is multiple. On the one hand, according to the file itself, Decree 625/2023 meant the regularization of benefits and new amounts from August 1, 2023 “so that the credits included in the budget for economic benefits do not even cover the maintenance of beneficiaries as of December 31, 2023. In fact, the deficit in relation to these economic benefits has already climbed to 57 million euros once added the increase in the number of beneficiaries to the change regulatory. The ministry adds as an explanation the effects of the extension of the Spanish government’s budget for 2024 (which will continue at least until the beginning of 2025). In this case, the impact is an additional funding of 200 million euros for dependency which has not been executed. Likewise, the deficit is influenced by the fact that the Government has decided to increase home help hours or by delays in the expenditure justifications issued by different municipalities. This now forces them to pay bills from previous years, further reducing the available budget. The budgetThe increase in the number of paid benefits and services has caused the cost of dependency to skyrocket in Andalusia. In the year 2024, the overall budget available to the autonomous community was 1.963 million euros, record resources for the autonomous community. By 2025, they total even more and the project which is about to be approved in Parliament reserves 2,331 million euros for this right. The big requirement of the Junta de Andalucía in this sense is that the central government, as provided for in the 2013 law that created the right to dependence, that the central government can assume 50% of the costs. In the case of Andalusia, this would represent more than a billion euros. In the case of the Basque Country, where the distribution is currently the worst, the investiture agreement of Pedro Sánchez with the PNV has effectively established the commitment to equal distribution, even if it has not yet been materialized. This 50% distribution does not currently exist in any autonomous community. In the case of Andalusia, one of those with the most balanced distribution, in 2023 the State contribution was 37.74% (a total of 729 million euros). In 2024, as of September, 587 million euros had been transferred, so it is expected that the records of the previous year will be exceeded. DelaysIn addition to economic problems, the Junta de Andalucía is still trying to resolve the serious processing problems that exist in the service and which have caused waiting times to access benefits to skyrocket. The latest report, published by the ministry through Imserso, sets the average time a person needs to access a benefit at 618 days, or more than 20 months. This is the longest delay among the autonomous communities, followed only by the Canary Islands, with 574 days, and the Region of Murcia, with 514 days. The number of people on waiting lists is, however, being reduced by the Autonomous Administration, according to ministry data. Currently, 52,895 people are waiting to receive an allowance in Andalusia.
