“The annual investment during the pandemic exceeds 230 million while in the great recession the old government stayed at 13.7”, explains Irene Gaviria
The regional secretary for Primary Care has highlighted that these figures “reflect the Botànic’s real commitment to rescuing people”.
Valencia – The investment made by the Vice Presidency and Ministry of Equality and Inclusive Policies in the Valencian inclusion income during the two years of the pandemic caused by COVID-19 has exceeded 460 million euros, benefiting a total of 75,305 people.
This was explained by the regional secretary for Primary Care and Social Services, Irene Gavidia, who stressed that these data “are a reflection of the Council’s real commitment to rescuing people”, in this case those who are in a greater situation vulnerability and who have especially suffered the social crisis derived from the health crisis.
“Between 2008 and 2014, the worst years of the great recession, the Generalitat invested 96 million euros in guaranteed income for citizens, compared to the 460.4 million euros that have been invested in the two years that the pandemic has lasted”, Gavidia has indicated, who has stressed that these data show what the priorities are according to who governs.
In this sense, he highlighted that in each year of the 2018 crisis, the old government invested an average of 13.7 million euros in the payment of the guaranteed income of citizens, while the current one, the Consell has allocated 230, 2 million euros per year for Valencian families in a situation of exclusion, who receive the Valencian inclusion income.
“For each year of this crisis, we have invested in Valencian inclusion income 16 times more than was invested during the great recession of 2008 in guaranteed citizenship income,” concluded the regional secretary for Primary Care and Social Services.
Investment reversal
Gavidia has pointed out that this investment, in addition to helping those families who are in a situation of social exclusion, “reverts directly to the economy”, and explained that according to a study by the University of Valencia “there has been a a return of 644.6 million euros that has boosted the economy “.
The 75,305 people who are recipients of the rent, he claimed, “do not use this money to have accounts in Panama or to speculate in the stock market but to make purchases at the greengrocer, stationery, cafeteria, butcher or hairdresser in their neighborhood.”
The regional secretary of Primary Care and Social Services has also pointed out that the Valencian inclusion income works as a one-stop shop, which means that in addition to the economic benefit, those families that need it also receive a supplement for the energy payment and another for the payment of the rent or the mortgage, in addition to scholarships and other aid to which they may be entitled.
These subsidies for energy consumption represent around 16 million euros, Gavidia pointed out, and stressed that this supposes “direct aid to the most impoverished families who have difficulties keeping their house warm or paying their rent.”
The insertion itineraries
The economic benefit of the Valencian inclusion income, she recalled, is accompanied by the itineraries of socio-labor insertion, social skills and personal empowerment mainly linked to the beneficiaries of this aid.
Thus, through the T’Acompanyem program, 23,127 people have been assisted, trained and accompanied since it was launched in 2016, with a success rate of 41%, which means that 9,495 Valencians have found work or have been returned to studies at the end of the program.
Gavidia has indicated that by 2022 it is planned to invest, on the one hand, 7 million euros to maintain these itineraries with the third sector and, on the other hand, 16 million euros for the creation of programs for the implementation of social inclusion itineraries within the primary care system in local entities, which allow municipalities to also start these itineraries.
A total investment that will exceed 23 million euros, which is practically doubling what was invested in 2021, has been concluded.
