The Canary Islands return to the tailgate in the investment in dependency per capita, with the lowest rate of 2023 in all of Spain, with a total of 138.2 euros compared to the state average of 240.5 euros.
Furthermore, in terms of investment per potentially dependent person, it is second to last, with 1,238 euros, as defended by a study prepared by the National Association of Directors and Managers of Social Services.
In total, last year, a total expenditure of 305.9 million of which 28.5% was contributed by the State (87.1 million) and the rest by the autonomous community (218.7 million), almost at the limit of the State average.
The Canary Islands are below the average of 1,825 euros with 1,248 euroswith Cantabria with 1,700 euros; Catalonia, with 1,649 euros; Asturias, with 1,604 euros; Aragon, with 1,536 euros; Murcia, with 1,504 euros and Galicia, with 1,073 euros. At the other extreme are the Balearic Islands, where the investment is 2,031 euros; La Rioja, 2,116 euros; Castile and León, 1,967 euros; Madrid, 1,921 euros; Andalusia, 1,888 euros; Castile-La Mancha, 1,876 euros and the Valencian Community, 1,825 euros.
The report also indicates that Castile and León, Galicia and Aragon have “earned money” thanks to the increase in the dependency budget within the framework of the Shock Plan (2020-2023) approved by the government after the health pandemic.
The study indicates that by 2023, public investment in dependency care will amount to 11,522 million euros: 8.230 million by the autonomous communities (71%), and 3.292 by the central government (29%) and confirms a “marked territorial inequality”, where the communities that invest the most in dependency per potentially dependent person per year are the Basque Country (2,848 euros), Extremadura (2,599 euros) and Navarre (2,413 euros).
According to the report, the relative weight of regional funding compared to state funding between 2015 and 2020 showed an upward trend that was interrupted in 2021, “when the increase in funding provided by the state through the emergency plan “It is used by some communities to withdraw part of their funding.”
Thus, the weight of local authorities in financing decreased by 13% between 2021 and 2023, while the General Administration “strengthens the financing of the system”.
“Paper” rights
The reductions in contributions in some autonomous communities “have limited the impact capacity of the shock plan funds,” according to the entity. The National Association of Directors and Managers of Social Services has focused, on the occasion of the age of majority of the Dependency Law, on the “to violate Public Administrations that have converted subjective rights into ephemeral and paper rights.
“This is a policy that interests citizens because a significant percentage is part of the natural cycle of life and many people will eventually find themselves in a situation of dependence“, they argue, while recalling that currently 292,792 people are on the waiting list and that every 15 minutes, a person dies in the bureaucratic labyrinth of the Law.
“Unfortunately, for the 45,360 people who died last year, the budgets did not arrive on time,” the entity denounced.
