"Madrid has not regularized the situation of single mothers by choice and hence chaos has arisen in the application for dining scholarships," says Miriam Tormo, president of the Association of Single Mothers by Choice (AMSPE), which considers that there may be some 2,000 families susceptible to receiving this aid in the Community of Madrid, but that they are discriminated against "both for being single parents and for economic criteria." Controversy surrounds the management of dining scholarships for this course and the Madrid government has had to come forward by admitting "processing errors" that could affect many more families.
This is precisely what happened to Ximena Franco, when she filled out the documentation, back in June, to request help. "Our family model does not appear in the application," he points out and adds that "I am of Colombian origin and I have no family or support in Madrid, so until last night (today, Wednesday is the last day to present the allegations) I have not had time to present my claim, attaching again the family book, copy of registration, responsible declaration..., when I always authorize the corresponding administration to verify my data".
And for more disorganization, he points out, "I received an SMS saying that 'the remedy presented is not valid because it lacks a divorce decree.'" And the young mother, who works in an audiovisual production company, asks herself: "What can I do if I haven't introduced her yet and I've never been married?"
This story repeats itself over and over again. Failures and more failures. The problem does not only affect single-parent families, but many more, but the problem is that those families in which the woman (in most cases) is the only parent are ignored as a family model, since legally There are no unified criteria that define it. "Some communities such as Navarra, Catalonia or La Rioja, among others, have regulated the single-parent family model; while in Madrid there has been no legislation in this regard, nor has our situation been regularized and that hurts," Tormo emphasizes, to which he adds: "Madrid is one of the communities that treats single-parent families the worst."
And the documentation that the Community of Madrid required to prove being a single-parent family was the death certificate of the second parent or the court ruling of separation or divorce. "And what about the mothers that we are by choice through assisted reproduction treatments?" Tormo asks. And he continues: "There are mothers who have even been asked for medical reports on assisted reproduction treatment and that is an attack on people's privacy. It is outrageous."
Yesterday, the Minister of Education, Emilio Viciana, explained that it is "an error in the processing system." The Community of Madrid, chaired by Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has changed this year the way of requesting aid (previously it was requested by the school and now by each family) and has outsourced the service to the company Randstad. The counselor assured in an informative meeting that "no family that meets the requirements will be left without a dining scholarship"; but the reality is that the 2023-2024 academic year has started with great chaos in educational centers in this area.
And they are not only discriminated against, he explains, for being single parents, "but also for income criteria." Since what is established is 4,260 euros of per capita income per member of the family unit, which means that the cut-off for a mother with one child is 8,520 euros; while in a family with two parents and one descendant the limit is 12,780 euros.
According to the Francisco Giner de los Ríos Federation of Parents' Associations, of the 100,000 applications for dining scholarships, there have been about 70,000 incidents that are now in the error correction period. The problem is that all single parents who have not presented the signature of the second parent because it does not exist have been directly denied it.
Ana López, an educator and with a 4-year-old child, in the first correction sent the family book, ID of both of them and registration. Well, "they again demanded a second correction in which they asked me for the signature of the other parent and the judicial regime for the custody of my son; when I had already stated in the first correction in observations that we were a single-parent family and had sent all the documentation". López had to make a second claim to justify her single-parent family situation.
Miriam Galindo, an administrator, with two children and one of them with special educational needs, has presented three allegations in her private capacity and one through the school. "Well, last Saturday they told me on the information phone number 112 that if they deny me again I will be able to file a fifth claim, when it is the third year that I have requested this help and I have never had problems." To which he adds: "Every time I receive the message I present the same thing (family book, ID of the three and registration), although in the last one I attach a writing explaining why my children have my surnames and justifying that I cannot present a sentence divorce, document accrediting shared custody, widowhood document or signature of the other parent because none of those cases correspond to my family model," he says.
The ideological bias that this issue has taken in Madrid has led left-wing politicians, such as Mónica García, spokesperson for Mas Madrid in the Assembly of the Community of Madrid, or the acting Minister of Equality, Irene Montero, to have raised the issue. today to social networks.
