Among the main changes, the organizations highlight the removal of incompatibilities between benefits and services under the System for Autonomy and Dependency Care (SAAD), the expansion of its catalog and the promotion of new support models for independent living. The reform also recognizes telecare as a right and incorporates assistive products through loans or temporary transfers, while further strengthening universal accessibility for people.
Anxo Queiruga, president of national Cocemfe, considers the approval a step forward for the entire social sector and underscores the value of political consensus on disability issues. “Today is an important day for the entire social sector,” he says, arguing that these advances do not benefit only people with disabilities but represent an improvement for society as a whole, both now and in the future.
PERSONAL ASSISTANCE AND ACCESSIBILITY: TWO KEY ELEMENTS OF THE REFORM
Personal assistance is one of the elements Cocemfe Aragón considers essential to making autonomy and the right to independent living a reality. The organization welcomes the reform’s promotion of this form of support but calls for its development to guarantee personalized assistance adapted to each person, especially where significant support needs exist, and for such assistance to be provided on a stable basis.
For the Aragonese organization, the next step is to effectively roll out personal assistance, with sufficient funding and access conditions that prevent inequalities between regions. Cocemfe Aragón maintains that every person should have the support needed to decide how they want to live and develop their own life plan, without a lack of resources or services limiting that choice in practice.
The reform also amends the Horizontal Property Law to improve accessibility in residential buildings. Cocemfe Aragón views this improvement positively, although it believes it does not fully address one of its main demands: that the necessary work on common elements be assumed by homeowners’ associations and accompanied by sufficient public aid to carry it out.
ACCESSIBILITY, TAXATION AND EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION
Housing accessibility remains, according to the organization, one of the major outstanding challenges. Cocemfe Aragón notes that nearly 100,000 people never leave their homes because of a lack of accessibility and that 1.8 million need another person’s help to do so. It therefore calls for measures to remove barriers and guarantee a more autonomous life both inside and outside the home, without relying on third parties every day.
Cocemfe Aragón and the associative movement also continue to pursue their tax-related demands. Among other measures, they are calling for a reduced 4% VAT rate on the products and services necessary for the personal autonomy of people with disabilities and those in situations of dependency. The measure was proposed during the parliamentary process but was not debated in Congress after its veto was justified on the grounds of an estimated budgetary impact of 144 million.
Following the completion of the parliamentary process, the organizations are focusing on turning the new rights into real support. They are calling for resources allocated to the autonomous communities to be delivered swiftly, for sufficient funding and for uniform implementation throughout the country. Queiruga sums up the challenge as ensuring that no one’s life plan is limited by a lack of the appropriate support, services or resources needed to live.
