The Government continues to take steps to try to improve the Catalan dependency care system, which has very high waiting lists. On Sunday, the president of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, presented the so-called Pla Cura (Care Plan), a battery of measures to make the dependency model —which includes case assessment, benefits, and care resources in residences, day centers, or home care— more agile. The goal is to reduce the waiting time between a person requesting recognition of dependency and receiving a benefit from 397 days to 60. This Monday, Illa delved into the plan with new measures: one of them is the universal and automatic aid of between 100 and 200 euros that all people will receive once they have been assessed and already have a recognized degree of dependency, to give them support while they await the definitive benefit or a place in a care resource.
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The other novelty announced this Monday focuses on an administrative flaw that added suffering to families. It concerns the debt that families incur with the administration when they continue to collect benefits for dependent persons after they have passed away, due to an administrative error that does not automatically cancel payments after death. “This will not happen again. We will never again have to claim money from people who have left us,” said President Illa. In 2025 alone, the Generalitat claimed 10,665 debts due to death.
The Pla Cura (Care Plan), which will be approved by decree-law, aims to remedy a problem that the dependency system has been dragging since the Dependency Law was approved in 2006: constant delays and long waiting lists to have the right to support for the care of elderly or dependent people recognized. The law was born with great will but soon ran into the financial crisis, which drained it of resources. And since then, people suffering from a situation of dependency live in this duality: a law recognizes specific rights for them, but the slowness and lack of resources in the system mean that they take a long time to receive the recognized benefits. In many cases, they never receive them, as death arrives just at the moment of waiting.
President Illa has acknowledged that the goal of reducing waiting times from 397 days to 60 is “ambitious.” “But we can do it and we know how to do it, because we have already achieved it in the pilot test carried out in Vic and now we will take it nationwide,” Illa explained. In part, this agility will be supported by integrated coordination between the departments of Health and Social Rights, under the umbrella of the Agency for Integrated Social and Health Care, which the Government is trying to modernize with technological innovation.
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The plan includes various measures to provide a solution for the 128,000 people on a waiting list in the dependency system. On the one hand, a rapid assessment, via videoconference, of the most serious cases that have requested dependency and are waiting. Thus, some 18,200 people will have their Grade III dependency immediately confirmed with its corresponding allocation —a bridge allocation of a minimum of 200 euros—. On the other hand, another 65,000 people who have applied for a benefit for being family caregivers will have their files resolved through the express Individual Care Program (PIA).
Finally, the plan will include the measure announced this Monday by Illa, the payment of this automatic aid of between 100 and 200 euros for all people who have already been assessed and who do not fall into any of the previous categories. The Generalitat estimates that, of all new applications, 81% will be assessed under an express PIA, and 19% will receive the waiting benefit. “From now on, all people who apply for dependency will receive a financial benefit within a maximum of two weeks from the assessment,” explain government sources.
To reinforce the plan, the Government plans to incorporate more than 200 professionals, add four new services, and invest 25 million euros in improving technology. The problem, however, is that despite the aid, the wait could continue indefinitely, especially if the beneficiary needs a place in a residence. Catalonia, which has just over 63,000 places in residences, has a deficit of 15,761 residential places to reach the ratio of five per 100 people over 65, according to a complaint made in January by the State Association of Directors and Managers in Social Services. The aging population and the worsening health status in which users arrive at the centers mean that, according to forecasts made by the ACRA residences employers’ association last October, Catalonia will have to add some 80,000 residential places and some 20,000 professionals by 2030.
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