Aragón vuelve a pedir al estado respeto en el financiamiento de la agencia

The Minister of Social Assistance and the Family of the Government of Aragon, Carmen Susín, participated in the plenary meeting of the Territorial Council of Social Services and the Autonomy and Care System (SAAD) held on Thursday morning at the Madrid headquarters of the Ministry of Social Affairs, Consumption, and the 2030 Agenda, in Madrid.

At this forum, the autonomous communities received information from the ministry led by Pablo Bustiduy on the draft law intended to amend the consolidated text of the rights of people with disabilities and the addiction law.

Regarding this reform and, as a precondition to address any issues related to its processing, Carmen Susín argued before the plenary and its participants that the Government of Spain must commit «with figures and an adjusted program» to «respect the funding that corresponds to them by law» and also present a «real and» and «and» and «and».

«If the reform does not entail an improvement in funding from the state, which does not even comply with the 50% of the agency that is currently mandated by the law, it will be another example of these ‘paper rights’ that have remained largely unfulfilled,» said the councilor.

«The autonomous communities and also Aragon, support the benefits and services of the addiction care system, while the government still does not meet that 50% of the funding that corresponds to them,» she reiterated.

In fact, Royal Decree 675/2023, which allocates benefits for the autonomy and care system (SAAD), has been implemented without the necessary funding, a situation that has been denounced on several occasions: new services were established. It has been the autonomous communities that have borne all the initiatives from the outset, such as the improvement and flexibility provided by the Family Economic Care Program (PECEF), already in force in Aragon.

The latest certified data, corresponding to the year 2023, show that the total expenditure of Aragon in the public system of the agency was 291,785,487.78 million euros; The certification of expenses for 2024, still in the calculation process, indicates a historical increase in community investments, exceeding 310 million euros.

Returning to the already certified certification for 2023, the total amount of state contribution was 98,285,128.24 million euros – 33.68% of the 291 million, with the autonomous community bearing the remaining 66.32%, equivalent to 193,500,359.54 million euros. This means that Aragon contributes just over 3 out of 5 euros to support SAAD in the community, far from the 50% mark set by the law.

On the other hand, the improvement in the agreed level from 2023 by extending the General State Budget (PGE-PE) that the state has used several times as an argument to improve funding is related to a series of objectives that, if not achieved, penalize the autonomous communities.

In fact, if Aragon saw that this level was met with 39.9 million in 2024, it was because it implemented sustainable and efficient management resources, which allowed the achievement of the objectives and also recovered the level of investments that the Lambán government reduced in 2021.

In any case, the paradox that the state provides regarding the agreed level results in the autonomous communities being more satisfied to lose the margin to finance their systems every time they improve, and therefore, the benefits and services they offer to dependents are costly.

Furthermore, the agreement of the Territorial Council regarding common criteria for the accreditation and quality of SAAD centers and services determines that the autonomous communities carry out investments and actions that are not financially compensated by the Government of Spain.

For all these reasons, Aragon’s position in this territorial council was denounced by Carmen Susín as «a law under which the state will not match the resources to reality and whose autonomous communities will once again be the main payers.»

«The Government of Spain is already threatening the viability of public addiction systems, as it refuses to match it and intends to continue suffocating those who go above and beyond what is required of us,» said the Minister of Social Welfare and the Family of the Government of Aragon.

At this meeting, the territorial distribution criteria and resulting amounts between the autonomous regions – except the Basque Country and the foreign community of Navarre and the cities of Ceuta and Melilla – of the financial credit in the 2025 Program for the protection of family poverty and children, also establish the basic benefits of social services and the development plan.

FUENTE