So far this year, 6,784 Andalusians have died awaiting assessment or installment (5,486, without recognition and 1,298, with right, but without assistance), i.e. a fifth of the national total and 1,033 more than those who died in 2024. This is the deadly consequence of the delay in this community served by the Dependency system: 512 days – every year and on average -, 166 more than the national average. of 346 days (triple the legal period of 180). These figures show the “structural collapse” of dependency in Andalusia, according to the latest report prepared by the Federación de Organizaciones Andaluzas de Mayores (FOAM), a scenario which can only worsen in the face of strong demographic pressure and greater population growth which is not accompanied by an increase in human and financial resources, themselves insufficient.
“In current conditions, without more funding and with an increasing influx of requests, the system alone could manage the ordinary flow, but it does not have the capacity to alleviate the accumulated amount nor to absorb the increase in demand,” indicates Martín Durán, president of FOAM. The head of the study, prepared with the latest data from November 30 from the System for Autonomy and Attention to Dependence (SAAD) published by Imserso and from demographic projections from the National Institute of Statistics, highlights that last year the Andalusian population over 65, the main user of the system, experienced an increase of 45,173 people (2.9%). “This means that there are more people with problems, mobility, illness…, and this is seen in an increase in requests,” explains Durán. “The combination of strong demographic pressure, a large volume of files processed, long waiting lists, average delays much longer than those of state media and a disproportionate number of deceased people awaiting recovery or payment, sets up a scenario of structural collapse of the SAAD,” the report concludes.
Lucas Barrero suffered it twice. When in June 2020, her mother Dolores, who has a rare disease, began to suffer from symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, she requested an assessment, but had to wait a year before starting to benefit from the service. “I had a 3rd year from the start, but the help we gave was only a small piece for the big dependents.” It was no better when in the summer of 2023 they requested a review of the provision, although their conditions were significantly improved. “Until the day my mother died, in February of this year, we didn’t get anyone called,” Barrero says, with suppressed anger.
In recent years, the Andalusian government has reformed the care model to speed up response and attention times, but in Barrero’s case his mother’s situation has worsened. “We responded to the Pueblo Defender and the Council responded that with the change in procedure, the preference criteria could be changed and instead of the waiting time, first the rent,” he explains. “Services are provided, but they are totally insufficient to cover the needs of adult dependents and the legal provisions are not respected to offer them, and the complaints mechanisms are not functional for them to be fulfilled,” he summarizes on his experience with the system.
The problem, according to the FOAM report, is not so much the product of “poor management” as of “structural insufficiency of means” to respond to demand within the legally required deadlines. In March of last year, the Commission changed the model that so harmed Barrero’s mother, when waiting lists exceeded 600 days, by unifying in a single administrative resolution the recognition of the situation of dependency and the right to benefits. The community has the highest number of requests processed in Spain, 446,477 out of a total of 2.3 million states, and is among the regions with the greatest volume of coverage, with a rate of 92.5% (1.2 points above the average). Of the 346,407 entitled to this right, 320,680 benefit from active assistance.
6,784 people died waiting for intervention
But these good indicators are of no use in the face of the 25,727 people who have the recognized right, but who have not benefited from the allowance, or 41,344 who are on the total waiting list, the highest figure in Spain, just behind Catalonia, with 84,464. “These data demonstrate that the system is not capable of translating over time and forms all recognized rights into real protection, maintaining a bag of “theoretical rights that extend excessively over time,” the report indicates.
The average waiting time, 512 days, is the highest in the country – only behind Murcia (565) -, and the number of deaths awaiting the procedure, 6,784 – the highest after Catalonia (8,356), out of a total of 30,470 deaths throughout the country -, “neutralizing the relative effort” of the Andalusian administration which is trying to reverse the state of the system and “repel the idea of collapse Andalusian”. dependent,” says Durán. This human cost in human lives, including Dolores, is higher than last year’s total in the community, 5,751, with just one month left in the year 2025, and is significantly higher than that of other large communities, such as Valencia, with 2,725, or Madrid, with 1,423. The report highlights the fact that, of these 6,764 deaths, 5,486 have not yet been assessed, showing that “the initial death of bottle cells is so severe that mortality occurs before the system determines the degree of dependence.”
All these factors contribute to the community occupying the last national position in terms of real management efficiency, which is measured by processing time and associated human cost, as indicated in the document. “Social workers are aware of the situation and encourage the search for other services of a private nature and which are often provided by people in an irregular situation, it is the public system itself that pushes you towards private care,” emphasizes Barrero.
Extraordinary financing
FOAM warns that it will be mathematically impossible to reach the figure of 180 days of waiting which marks the law if it is not compensated by extraordinary financing. It does not seem that this is the path that the Andalusian Government is following, according to the amount allocated to Dependency in the autonomous hypotheses of 2026. The contribution allocated to this service is 2.610 million euros, and 5.06% of the total, a percentage similar to that allocated to Agriculture (5.10%) and that, as such and as Durán pointed out during his appearance at the parliamentary process, it is not real because 144.5 million of this amount (5.54%) were directed towards new programs under the Dependency Law.
Durán warns that “the economic growth that the community enjoys does not lead to dependency.” This increases the GDP and also the population over 65 years old, but instead of increasing the resources allocated to the system, real investment in recent years has only increased, from 0.78% of GDP, in 2018, to 1.13% for 2026. FOAM deplores in its report that the dependency hypothesis reaches 2% of GDP and draws attention to the support for the financing of this service from public funds, which has tripled in this period of time, increasing from 248 million to 770 next year.
In this sense, the Moreno government criticizes the central that does not respect the obligation to assume 50% of the financing of the dependency system, which, on the other hand, has never happened, although in recent years it has increased, oscillating from 19.22% in 2019 to 37.74% in 2023, a percentage that will be reduced from the current 32.96% to 29.50%, in 2026. During this period, the funds provided by the Council were reduced in the same proportion. However, Andalusia is the community that finances the State the most in matters of dependency and, as Durán says, the gradual and insufficient increase in the Andalusian budget in this public service was possible thanks to the State which tripled its contribution, by 210%, while the Junta alone increased by 81.75%.
In addition to the fact that the departure for dependency reaches 2% of the regional GDP and that the Andalusian Parliament insists that the Spanish government assumes 50% of the financing, the FOAM calls in its report for an extraordinary financing plan between 2016 and 2029 to guarantee the social viability of the Dependence, protect the most dependent people and reduce the human cost of the delay, which, without immediate action, is expected to remain at levels of 6,000 to 7,000 deaths per year.
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