Care waiting lists: minister demands zero by 2028

People applying for care support could face no waiting list by 2028 under a target set by Spain’s Social Rights Minister Pablo Bustinduy. Speaking in Barcelona on 20 September, he told Spain’s autonomous communities to cut their lists in half in 2027 before bringing them to zero a year later. The regional authorities process the applications.

Bustinduy said the State and the autonomous communities had agreed to split funding for the Dependency Care Law equally. He said the regions now had twice the resources for care support, and called for pressure and scrutiny to ensure they deliver.

Faster decisions on care claims

A reform approved in July cuts the deadline for regional authorities to decide care applications from six months to three. Bustinduy blamed the queues directly on cuts to dependency care over the previous decade, which he put at €5,406 million.

The State is contributing €6,200 million, he said. Bustinduy wants the care system to move away from large residential homes and make it possible for people to remain at home for as long as possible with a good quality of life.

Rent freeze plan still stalled

Bustinduy also attacked the PSOE’s abstention on a proposed ban on selling homes to investment funds, calling the decision incomprehensible. He said a decree negotiated with the PSOE over three years would freeze rents at their level of five years ago, tackle fraud involving holiday and seasonal lets, and slow evictions.

The proposal had been due before Parliament in July but was not introduced. Looking ahead to budget talks, Bustinduy named a universal child-raising benefit to fight child poverty and free school meals in state education among his priorities.

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Source: Europa Press / Mallorca.com