READ CATALAN VERSION
Facilitate access to residences for the elderly. With this objective, the Government has increased the linked economic benefits (PEV) to 500 euros per month to pay for the place in these centers. This is the aid that people with an accredited degree of dependency receive to pay for a subsidized center, when they cannot access a public place. Until now, the maximum amount received by beneficiaries of these benefits was 747 euros per month. Now, with the increase and depending on the income level, they will be able to receive up to 1,239 euros. The budget increase will allow aid to reach 5,000 more people.
The minimum and maximum amounts to access a residence, linked to the Dependency Law, were frozen since 2012. The Minister of Social Rights, Carles Campuzano i Canadés, has highlighted the importance of the measure “to move towards universalization , reduce waiting lists and introduce a level of equity.” This update will not only benefit new users, but also those who already receive the benefit, more than 11,000 people in Catalonia.
It depends on the income level. The reference price for a public residential space is 2,002 euros per month. If a user has the right to a public place, according to the dependency system, but there are none available, they can access a place in a concerted center with financial aid from the Generalitat to pay for it.
Thanks to the increase in the PEV, the coverage financed by the Generalitat will go from the current 37% to around 62% of the cost of a place, in the case of the lowest incomes. To do this, the Government will increase the budget planned for this item by 55 million euros next year, allocating more than 178 million euros.
The Department of Social Rights foresees that the number of people benefiting from a PEV will increase by 43% and go from the 11,300 people who already receive the benefit currently, to more than 16,300. Thus, the list of access to a residence place for the elderly could be reduced by nearly 5,000 people.
For the councilor, this reform "universalizes access" to residential centers and "reinforces the right of people to decide which center they want to go to."
The Government has also agreed to eliminate the co-payment for day centers for people with intellectual or physical disabilities and, therefore, will assume its entire cost. The free provision of these day care services will allow these people and their families to have more resources to maintain correct home care, and in this way, delay their institutionalization as much as possible.
The reference cost of day center services for people with intellectual or physical disabilities is 740 euros per month. The suppression of the copayment for families will mean that the Department of Social Rights allocates an extra item of more than 500,000 euros to the 2024 budget.
In addition, Drets Socials allocates an extra 127 million euros to finance social services, as agreed with unions and employers in June, to improve working conditions in the sector and the quality of care services for the elderly, disability, health mental health, childhood and adolescence, foster care and adoption, early care, autonomy support, drug addiction, HIV/AIDS and guardianship.
In 2023, the general increase will be 4%, plus 2.08% due to the extra costs generated by the increase in energy prices. An item is also allocated to other increases for specific improvements in rates that have been assessed as deficient or also to allow the elimination of some co-payments. With these increases, the total cost of the services provided in the Xarxa de Serveis Socials d'Atenció Pública for 2023 will be 1,530 million euros.
