University professor Pablo Bustinduy (Madrid, 40 years old) makes his debut in this legislature as the new Minister of Social Rights, Consumption and Agenda 2030. He speaks to EL PAÍS in his office on an intense day, on Tuesday, just after presenting two laws before the Council of Ministers, customer service and families, both inherited from the last legislature.
The first was on the verge of being approved and the minister highlights that "it shortens by half the deadlines that companies have to resolve complaints (from one month to 15 days) and establishes the ambitious objective that any telephone complaint be attended to in less than three minutes.”
Regarding the second, in which improvements will still be introduced in Congress, he states: “I would dare to think that practically all families will be included in one way or another in this framework of public policies.”
Ask.
She has said that she wants to expand maternity and paternity leave, pay parental leave for care, and improve parenting benefits.
How is the negotiation going?
Answer.
The negotiation of the General State Budgets is ongoing and discretion must be maintained.
But I do want to reiterate that the government agreement includes this extension of birth leave to 20 weeks and the gradual remuneration of parental leave until reaching at least four of the eight weeks.
There are two avenues open.
One is the negotiation of the Budgets;
Due to the budgetary impact, it is evident that this negotiation is very important, also for the extension of up to six years of child-rearing benefit assistance, which is not in the government agreement, but which is one of the measures that we have put in place. on the table.
And the other way will be the parliamentary processing of the family law, which would be a good landing pad for some of these developments.
Q.
In the previous legislature, it was not possible to agree on a universal child-rearing benefit.
Are we going to see it this term?
A.
Universal benefit is not in the government agreement.
In each of my interventions I emphasize that Spain must adopt a universal benefit and put an end to the anomaly that the fourth largest economy in the euro zone, a rich country with an advanced democracy, does not have a benefit of this type.
Child poverty data affects the most pressing part of the problem.
But it is not just about alleviating child poverty.
It is about public powers, about democracy accompanying families in the tasks of parenting.
Because?
Because in the absence of these benefits, it is the families who must assume responsibilities in an extraordinarily difficult context.
It is specifically women who must do it.
And those difficulties of conciliation, those economic difficulties, are an impediment to freedom.
We have achieved almost universal coverage between zero and three years, we are going to fight for the extension up to six years, it would be an insufficient first step, but a very significant one to alleviate that deficit.
Q.
The Tax Authority (Airef) estimates that 76% of families, although able to receive the childhood supplement of the minimum vital income, do not request it.
How do you combat these numbers?
A.
Several studies affect a necessary phase: the evaluation of the development and deployment of the minimum vital income, which was a milestone in social policy in Spain.
But it is evident that its potential is much greater and that it has entailed a number of difficulties and complexities, especially bureaucratic, but in some elements also linked to its design, which could easily be improved.
It must be updated so that it arrives more quickly, so that it serves to stop situations of sudden poverty and so that this benefit fulfills the purpose with which it was born, which is to represent a before and after for the capacity of public policies to tackle the unacceptably high poverty situations in our country.
Bustinduy, on Tuesday at the ministry headquarters.
Alex Onciu
Q.
The ministry has proposed reaching 50% financing of dependency spending at the end of the legislature.
What objectives do you set in this area?
A.
The objective of continuing with the path of historic increase in dependency spending of the last legislature, in which the General State Administration increased its contribution to dependency policies by 130%, is a firm commitment of this Government.
We are going to maintain this rate of increase and even multiply it to reach at the end of the legislature that objective of 50% [in charge of the Executive]-50% [in charge of the autonomous communities].
This goes hand in hand with a strategy to transform the care model that must suppose a revolution in the way we conceive dependency in Spain.
A fundamental leg of this strategy will have to do with the approval of the deinstitutionalization strategy, which will attempt to establish the framework for this change in the dependency model.
What does it consist of?
Well, in a very basic principle, but one that is common sense and that is a transversal consensus in Spanish society: that people should be able to remain at home as long as they wish and that, therefore, the attention from public powers must be based on the needs of the person in their socio-community environment.
This means promoting telecare, home help, establishing an ecosystem of practices that allows us not to continue building large macro-residences, but rather to generate the environment in which people can remain at home and with the highest quality of life possible throughout the year. time they want.
Q.
How will you ensure that communities don't take advantage of this increased funding to put in less money?
A.
The financing is linked to these objectives and in no case is the increase in the contribution by the General State Administration compatible with the communities withdrawing funds.
This was established in the last legislature.
The central government's contribution will be linked to maintaining investment levels in the communities, as well as directing these new resources towards the transformation of the care model.
Q.
It takes an average of 327 days to resolve dependency benefits, and the government agreement plans to reduce it to 30 days.
As?
A.
Waiting lists were also substantially reduced in the last legislature.
Which is not surprising, because it is linked to the availability of resources and funding levels.
These waiting lists are a legacy of the austerity policies and cuts in social policy and dependency of the PP governments.
There was a substantial reduction in waiting lists across the board, but these levels are still not acceptable.
I hope that the increase in funding and the reorientation of public policies will also help us achieve these objectives.
In the transition of the care model, I want to emphasize the word transition.
It is evident that it cannot be decreed from one day to the next and that moving the public policy apparatus in a direction that is also innovative and ambitious requires sustained effort over time and cooperation between all public administrations.
But I think the path is marked and that it is going in the right direction.
Waiting lists must be reduced and the bureaucratic burden that citizens face when requesting this type of benefits must be streamlined.
Q.
How is the ministry's work going to verify that the communities apply the agreement that establishes a new model for residences and other dependency services?
A.
I want to highlight the immense effort that was made to generate consensus in the autonomous communities, because the transformation of the care model will only be possible if it is part of a country agreement, which necessarily has to be transversal, politically and ideologically.
I think there are enough elements to trust that this is the case.
For the country, the demographic change in which we are immersed is a challenge, the evolution that is expected not only in Spain, but throughout Europe, since we are living longer and older, we live in smaller families, care needs increase and this It requires medium and long-term strategies that all political actors, regardless of their ideological orientation, recognize as common.
It is true that it was difficult to obtain the accreditation agreement, but in the end, only three autonomous communities were left out of it and even some of them are evolving in a direction that is heading there.
How can you verify compliance?
There is financing linked to the orientation of public policy interventions in the sense established by these agreements.
But I repeat, the important part here is the dynamics of cooperation, is that the definition of objectives is common.
I believe that it is the only way for us to ensure not only that objectives are met in the short term, but that this transformation of public policies becomes irreversible, that is, that it does not depend on the immediate political situation, that it does not depend on a change of Government, as has happened in the past.
The Minister of Social Rights, Consumption and Agenda 2030, at the headquarters of his department.
Alex Onciu
Q.
Consumption has lost a specific ministry, is it no longer important?
A.
The construction of this ministry is based on a firm conviction that the rights of consumers, especially vulnerable ones, and the development of a sustainable consumption model fall within the framework of social rights.
Q.
Why doesn't the customer service law include compensation if companies do not respond in time?
A.
The law is quite ambitious: it is applicable horizontally to all sectors of economic activity and incorporates an audit system with a sanctioning regime.
I am aware that some organizations would like to include this right of compensation, but to do so we must find sufficient parliamentary majorities.
Q.
What will happen if these audits reveal that customers are not happy?
A.
Public administrations can act on the basis of these annual audit reports and a sanctioning regime is foreseen with fines that can go up to 100,000 euros for the most serious infractions.
Q.
How are you going to ensure that companies properly serve these vulnerable consumers?
A.
The law establishes the need to develop personalized care delivery systems, taking into account factors such as age, the administrative situation or whether the person filing a claim is a disabled or elderly person.
Q.
Will you sanction influencers
who
carry out covert advertising?
A.
This ministry will have no qualms about using its capabilities to sanction fraudulent practices and to protect the rights of consumers, especially the most vulnerable.
In the case of
influencers
, covert advertising is a practice that especially affects boys and girls.
Q.
Are you going to resume the decree to regulate the advertising of unhealthy foods for children?
A.
We are going to raise this initiative as a priority.
It is evident that advertising practices aimed at children for unhealthy foods influence the formation of bad eating habits.
It is the obligation of public powers to protect children at a critical time for the development of their healthy habits.
We are going to start by listening to what experts and organizations defending children from civil society have to say.
And from there we will take care of its political translation.
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