Experts warn that the lack of quality employment for millennials puts at risk the Administration’s financing capacity to pay for health, education or the pension system
The middle classes have been for the last 40 years the sustenance of the Welfare state in European societies. The singularity that has defined the Old Continent with respect to other regions of the world, such as the United States, has been a group of workers with average incomes, neither too low to be able to pay taxes, nor too high to be tempted not to pay them and pay for their own private services on their own. From the great recession that fringe of workers with average incomes has weakened in Spain.
“Everyone has to understand that the Welfare State has to be paid for,” recalled the Minister of Inclusion, Jose Luis Escriva, after raising social contributions in the last phase of the pension reform. The Administration’s financing capacity has also been put to the test during this pandemic, when to pay for furloughs, aid to the self-employed or sick leave due to covid, the State has spent 39,050 million euros during the two years of the pandemic. Without that figure, take into account the transfers enabled from the autonomies.
Health: More than a decade of losses
Spanish health has been weakened since 2010. It was not strengthened when, in theory, the country overcame the economic crisis. Spain has been investing less in it and has lost health professionals. “Since 2010 the system has been poorly put together and the pandemic has finished unraveling everything & rdquor ;, he says Gabriel of the Well, general secretary of the State Confederation of Medical Unions (CESM).
Del Pozo points out the “terrible overload & rdquor; in primary care, which ends up affecting hospital emergencies and, later, hospitals. And this is suffered by the citizen, who does not always receive adequate service. “Our system, from being one of the envied in Europe, has been losing strength and capacity.” Many toilets have gone to other countries in search of better economic conditions, as they are among the lowest paid in Europe. “There has been no planning neither investment. We dedicate between 5% and 7% of the GDP less than the surrounding countries & rdquor ;, points out del Pozo.
The general secretary of Metges de Catalunya (MC), Xavier Leonart, denounces that the system, with the cuts, has been losing “accessibility & rdquor ;. “Years ago you asked for a visit with your doctor and they gave it to you after 48 hours, now it takes two weeks. Right now there is not a single CAP that does not have structural deficits of professionals & rdquor ;, he values. It happens because many have been retiring and “there has been no budget to replace them.” This implies that the ratio of patients per doctor increases. “And that means a worsening of the quality of care & rdquor ;.
Lleonart denounces that, from 2010 until now, the Catalan health system lost some 10,000 million. The per capita expenditure of the Ministry of Health was 1,297 euros in 2010. In 2020, of 1,293 euros. “We are at the levels of then & rdquor ;.
Education: Still far from the Paris goals
The member countries of the unesco signed last November the Declaration of Paris by which they committed to allocate to education between 4% and 6% of GDP and/or at least between 15% and 20% of total public spending. In Catalonia, spending on public education represents 3.6% of GDP, below Spain (4.03%) and far from the EU average (4.6% GDP). From CCOO denounce that although the Education budget for this 2022 has improved (6,681 million euros, 17.5% of the total of the Catalan accounts), the investment is still far from the figures prior to the cuts taking into account inflation since 2010 That year, the budget was 5,539 million, 19.24% of the budgets of the Generalitat. CCOO claims to recover the 9,500 million that according to its estimates have been left to invest in education in this past decade. In this decade, the ratios of students per class have not improved, early childhood education is still not 100% free and the school is still not 100% inclusive, among other aspects.
Teachers are a key figure in the education system. “Teachers have seen how their salaries and working conditions have been cut. They have been raised by 2% in 2022 when inflation is 6.7%,” he denounces Jesus Martin from UGT. And he relates this fact to the lack of specialist teachers: “Do you think that graduates or engineers would want to go to work at the Department of Education with current working conditions?”
Pensions: A reform that aspires to equity
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Last year, the coalition government approved one of the links in its reform of the pensions, with which he hopes to strengthen the future viability of the public benefits system. The so-called ‘intergenerational equity mechanism‘ ended with a temporary increase in social security contributions that companies, and to a lesser extent workers, already pay from this 2022. This measure came to replace the sustainability factor approved by the PP and that it intended to reduce the total amount of pension to be received based on the increase in the average life expectancy of retirees.
The Government reform aims to feed a pension piggy bank to pay for part of the increase in spending planned once they start to withdraw massively the ‘baby boomers‘ of the labor market. A measure that, together with the disincentive of early retirement, aims to limit spending to avoid future cuts in pensions or greater increases in tax burdens that future generations of workers would have to assume. Critics of the reform argue that the measures promoted by Minister José Luís Escrivá are not enough to cushion this foreseeable increase in spending. It is not a finished reform and there are elements, such as the increase in the period of years contributed to calculate the final amount of the pension, which are still to be negotiated.
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