UGT and CCOO have started a signature collection at FiraGran to ask Congress to increase the funding for the dependency care law to 2% of GDP in the next decade and to shorten the waiting list for aid.
The campaign comes with a gap that the unions place at the center of the debate. While the number of people in situations of dependency grows, the time to obtain a resolution reaches 340 days and, furthermore, 250,000 people are still awaiting an assessment.
Unions place the wait for aid at 340 days
Ángel Tubau Quintano, territorial secretary for Retirees and Pensioners of UGT in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, stated at the fair that it takes 340 days to get aid approved. The union's demand is to reinforce state funding to shorten that delay.
Tubau added that last year 32,000 people died before receiving aid. In his opinion, that figure requires more resources to care for those who have already proven a need for support.
For CCOO, Joana Solsona Bestard, former general secretary for Retirees and Pensioners of CCOO of Baix Llobregat, estimated that 250,000 people remain on the waiting list pending an assessment. She also argued that current benefits are reduced in a context with a larger dependent population.
UGT and CCOO ask the Parliament to speed up the law for the elderly
In addition to the signature collection aimed at Congress, both organizations are asking the Parliament of Catalonia to speed up the processing of the law for the elderly, which is still pending. The request seeks to advance the text after a parliamentary process that the unions consider too slow.
Maria Àngels Gómez Cámara, general secretary for Retirees and Pensioners of UGT of Catalonia, stated that the regulation is already in process but has been stalled for some time, and argued that now is the time to move it forward.
At the FiraGran stands, UGT and CCOO are also informing visitors about the defense of the public pension system. The initiative combines this awareness-raising task with seeking support for the mobilization called for October 1st, World Day of Older Persons.
The call for this protest is part of the campaign that the unions are presenting these days at FiraGran and which they link to both the reinforcement of dependency care and the defense of the public pension system.