The Minister of Social Rights, Pablo Bustinduy, yesterday congratulated the Spanish Red Cross on a visit to its headquarters for having implemented with “dedication and effectiveness” the new system of wallet cards for vulnerable families and “having helped the regional governments” to distribute these ‘vouchers’ with money loaded for that are exchanged for fresh food and basic hygiene products in predefined supermarkets. According to the minister of Sumar, the cards are assigned to 65,000 of the 70,000 families that had been planned for this “first year of transition”, although it has been, at most, a semester, since the new model was agreed in April, its Its implementation was delayed until June and it did not begin to operate at full capacity until July.
Bustinduy did state that “the competence of the system is exclusive to the autonomies”, managed in collaboration with the Red Cross, although his ministry has supervised it until the end of the year and from 2025 the regions will do so alone. The minister forgot three nuances, which yesterday spoiled the autonomies consulted by ABC: one, that 65,000 families may be many or few depending on how you look at it, but those who have been awarded this Government subsidy this December only have their card charged with between 130 and 220 euros (per month), so they can be numerous but the money is scarce; two, that the excluded families were many more because it only benefits those with dependent minors. The softest estimates spoke of 250,000 families outside the new model. To give an example, 100,000 Madrid residents were left out.
And, third, in yesterday’s visit there was no mention of the budgeted money when it is the big issue: only 46 of the 95 million euros received from European funds for 2024 have been executed. Families will have until March 31 to spend what they have been charged until December 31, 2024. The same sources indicate that in the meeting that the Ministry will have on Friday with the 17 autonomies, Ceuta and Melilla, that percentage will amount to a maximum of 55%. And so they will let Bustinduy know.
Subsidies Law
Around half of the European funds have not been implemented. What does this mean? According to the royal decree implementing the model, the Red Cross will have to return half of the amount from the European Social Fund Plus ESF+ (plus late payment interest and half of what it has charged for the contract executed at 100 %) since it is subject to the Subsidies law.
Furthermore, at that meeting on the 20th, each of the autonomous communities surveyed will go with a complaint about why they have not been able to fine-tune the model “unilaterally designed à la carte by Social Rights,” they say. The circumstances are different, and only two of the 17 – Galicia and Cantabria – have been able to implement the food distribution system (which has completely replaced the provision made to the 54 food banks in the country). Sources from the Department of Family, Youth and Social Affairs of the Community of Madrid, which has implemented the plan at 23%, remember that when the system came into effect during the holiday period it was at a slow pace and since September it has only been able to “load as “a lot to families with four months on the card.”
In addition to starting “late”, the most powerful city council, the capital, has its own card, so families have not been referred to the Red Cross for “only six months.” It happens in other places. The community has accelerated its own wallet card for next March, which will work in 2025. But not all communities have yet put out to tender that formula to walk alone.
Very irregular implantation
Some, like Asturias, had only executed 19% of the program until two weeks ago; Andalusia has it at 95; and Castilla-La Mancha, at 87%. Castilla y León criticized at the time that the participating supermarkets had a residual presence in the region (they are Carrefour, Alcampo, Spar Gran Canaria, Más y Maás, Alimerka, Dinosol and Eroski-Caprabo)that the closest ones were gas stations and that the rural environment hindered the possibility of people in vulnerable situations. This region has only managed 14% of the aid (data from the end of November).
“What they sell as success from the Government is a resounding failure, they have lost 50 million euros for not listening to the autonomies – say these sources -.” The system was agreed in 2021, with Ione Belarra at the head of the department, to replace the old FEAD Program; Bustinduy inherited it. «After three years, they have ended up ‘palming’ money – they complete -. We asked for a six-month extension in 2025 because we couldn’t arrive on time. Now they will verify that this first semester has been the announced fiasco», they say from the Government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso.
The complaints do not come only from autonomies governed by the PP nor are they isolated, but rather widespread. They find their place even in an internal document of Red Cross, sole winner of the Government contract for which he received 100 million this year.
This newspaper has had access to this documentation where the organization itself in charge of implementing the program with the parameters of the Ministry of Social Rights shows its shortcomings: the Red Cross points out in its preliminary evaluation of execution that there is a “lack of a global aid strategy”; that “They are isolated aids»; “the program favors a chronicification of poverty”; «leaves out the rural environment and areas in emergency situations”; “product selection is complex, it makes operational logistics difficult for cashier staff”; and the cards “present difficulty in checking the balance prior to purchase”, among others.
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