Social Security is still on the warpath. After many threats, CSIF, UGT and CCOO have today announced mobilisations for November amongst Social Security staff, in protest at “the failure and incompetence in management” of the current minister, José Luis Escrivá. He has not been able to redirect the progressive deterioration of management, according to the unions in a joint statement.
“There are fewer staff. It is not managed effectively or efficiently. This translates into a growing loss of prestige and social condemnation by the public, leading to a public service where workers are at the mercy of the incompetence of those responsible for the system,” the statement said.
The mobilisations include “rallies, demonstrations, press conferences, awareness-raising amongst parliamentary groups and citizens’ associations, partial stoppages and, finally, intermittent strikes and general strikes if necessary”, they warn in a letter sent to Minister Escrivá. Yesterday at the ministry he presented “The Minimum Living Income Bus” which will start its tour of 40 Spanish municipalities today, Tuesday, in a parish of Alcalá de Henares (Madrid), to reach “as many” households as possible, explaining the requirements for access to the IMV (Minimum Living Income)… But when the TV cameras ask potential beneficiaries, they explain that “it is impossible to get an appointment at the Social Security”.
The bus project is the result of a study carried out by the ministry to detect who is still not reached by the MVI. Escrivá pointed out that they sent “thousands of SMS” to potential beneficiaries who, despite meeting the requirements, have not applied for the benefit, and discovered that “one in four still do not know about the IMV”.
Since its launch in June 2020, the MVI has reached some 510,000 households and almost 1.5 million people, 600,000 of them minors. The Minister of Inclusion expects the benefit to exceed 650,000 households by the end of the legislature. When the government launched the benefit, Escrivá’s department estimated that the IMV would reach 850,000 households. However, in more than two years of deployment this figure has not yet been reached.
So while the unions accuse it of inefficiency, and users complain that the SS is collapsed, the vehicle will begin its journey this Tuesday in the parish of San Francisco de Asís, in Alcalá de Henares (Madrid), and then tour the rest of the Community of Madrid and up to 40 municipalities throughout Spain. The bus will pause at Christmas and then resume its journey and will continue in circulation until March 2023.
