The Commission for Social Rights and Consumption of the Congress of Deputies gave its approval this Thursday to the reform of the disability and dependency laws, in a vote in which PP and Vox rejected the text. The initiative will now go to the Plenary Session of the Lower House. According to sources from the Ministry of Social Rights on Wednesday, the vote in the hemicycle will likely be held next Tuesday, July 14.
The final opinion of the Bill amending the Consolidated Text of the General Law on the rights of persons with disabilities and the Law on the Promotion of Personal Autonomy and Care for persons in situations of dependency was approved with the support of all parliamentary groups except PP and Vox.
During the previous debate, PP deputy Enrique Belda justified his group's rejection due to the lack of an economic report and a clear budgetary forecast, although he left the door open to changing his position in the Plenary Session if the Government corrects this point. "If they tell us how they will pay for the new benefits from 2027 onwards, we can reach an agreement, we can even reach it before the Plenary Session," he stated.
The text, which after passing the Plenary Session will be sent to the Senate, incorporates the figure of the expert procedural facilitator through a transactional amendment.
The amendment, which Europa Press has accessed, adds a new additional provision detailing that this expert person "will work with the staff of the Administration of Justice and persons with disabilities to ensure that they understand and make informed decisions in judicial proceedings," guaranteeing that the entire procedure is explained in "understandable and easy language" and that the necessary support and adjustments are offered.
In addition, the groups supporting the Government have introduced another amendment to establish that state funding for the dependency system reaches 50%, after the central Executive approved an additional injection of 6.2 billion euros for the autonomous communities, as highlighted by sources from the Ministry of Social Rights.
These same sources have criticized that the PP has rejected this amendment "despite the fact that this party governs in numerous Autonomous Communities and its regional governments have been demanding for years that the state contribution reach 50%". They recalled that, currently, the law does not expressly establish that the state contribution to dependency must be 50% and that "it will now become the norm".
They also reproached that in the last decade, when the PP occupied La Moncloa, "they cut the dependency system by more than 5,000 million euros during Rajoy's terms".
The Plenary of Congress had already approved on December 11 the consideration of this Bill, promoted by the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and the 2030 Agenda, by rejecting a total amendment from Junts that sought to return the text to the Government. All groups voted against this amendment, except for PP and Vox, who opted for abstention.
Since then, the Minister of Social Rights, Pablo Bustinduy, has insisted on the need for a broad political agreement and has reiterated that the reform will have sufficient funding. Along these lines, the Council of Ministers approved a Royal Decree-Law last week with "the largest investment in dependency in the history of democracy": an additional 6.2 billion euros between 2026 and 2027.
Among the main innovations of the reform of the disability and dependency laws are the expansion of services and benefits of the System for Autonomy and Dependency Care (SAAD) and the elimination of the incompatibility regime in dependency aid introduced in 2012.
Likewise, telecare is recognized as a right, home care is strengthened, and measures are incorporated to streamline administrative processing, such as the elimination of bureaucratic burdens by automatically equating the situation of dependency with disability. The norm also provides that friends and neighbors can be considered formal caregivers, so that they can receive the benefit for care in the family environment.