After 13 years frozen, the poverty threshold will be automatically reviewed to unlock the assumption of electricity bills in Catalonia

The Generalitat and the Third Sector agree on a social package of more than 250 million that assumes electricity debts, allocates funds to childhood and mental health, and establishes the automatic annual review of the poverty threshold.

23 of may of 2026 at 12:29h
After 13 years frozen, the poverty threshold will be automatically reviewed to unlock the assumption of electricity bills in Catalonia
After 13 years frozen, the poverty threshold will be automatically reviewed to unlock the assumption of electricity bills in Catalonia

The Generalitat will assume the debts with Endesa of vulnerable families generated between 2021 and 2025 within the agreement signed by president Salvador Illa and the president of the Taula del Tercer Sector Social, Xavier Trabado. The pact also incorporates a package of social measures exceeding 250 million euros.

The main novelty of the agreement comes after years in which the sufficiency income indicator of Catalonia, key to accessing benefits, remained frozen between 2010 and 2023. While that threshold continued to go unupdated, the new document opens the door to negotiating a stable system to review it automatically each year.

The Government allocates 75 million to childhood and 51 million to the zero to three years stage

The agreement includes an investment of 75 million euros for childhood and adolescence policies. This allocation will be directed to extracurricular activities, improving residential resources for minors with behavioral disorders, and the Childhood Poverty Plan.

In addition, the Generalitat plans to invest 51 million euros in 2026 in education for zero to three years. The agreement also reserves 25 million for the National Pact for Mental Health.

After the signing, Mònica Martínez Bravo, Minister of Social Rights and Inclusion, defended the scope of the pact.

"These are the most social accounts in history, and this agreement with the Taula has allowed us to further boost some areas" - Mònica Martínez Bravo, Minister of Social Rights and Inclusion, Generalitat de Catalunya

The pact reserves 82 million for homelessness between this year and 2027

The document sets aside 35 million euros this year and another 47 million in 2027 for the Framework for Addressing Homelessness. The priority is prevention and comprehensive care through the program contract with municipal Social Services.

It also foresees more housing reserves for people in emergency or social exclusion situations and up to 28 million euros between this year and next for employment and socio-labor insertion programs. Within that block, the text incorporates the creation of a participation council in the Servei d'Ocupació de Catalunya with the presence of the Third Social Sector.

Part of the agreed commitments will be incorporated into the budgets that the Generalitat will present after its agreement with ERC, while another part will remain pending for 2027. Overall, the Government commits more than 250 million euros directly aimed at citizens.

The agreement signed by Illa and Trabado is the first that the Generalitat and the Taula del Tercer Sector Social close in writing on budgets, after years of informal influence on public accounts.

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