Portal de Lorca
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Adoración Peñas, councilor of IU-Greens of the City of Lorca explained that the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism has developed a draft Royal Decree that regulates the so-called Social Bono for vulnerable consumers of electricity.
The rule will regulate the conditions to obtain discounts on the invoice depending on certain circumstances and establish the situations in which the supply will be considered essential, which will prevent the cut of the same, obtaining discounts of 25% on your invoice who are in condition of "Vulnerable" and 40% if "severe vulnerability" is considered (measured according to the annual income in relation to IPREM along with other circumstances such as large families or families composed of pensioners)
The worrying thing, according to IU-Verdes, is that electricity utilities avoid cutting power to households that prove the condition of severe vulnerability ... if social services pay the bill!
Peñas has said that this is a real nonsense considering the very small budgets that social services have to deal with social policies, especially after years of suffering excessive and indecent cuts, remembering that in the case of Lorca, CARM's budget contribution for benefits and social service programs has declined more than significantly in recent years, while it also accounts for approximately 17% of what some private social centers receive.
According to the mayor, if this measure is implemented, it could cost more than 300 million euros per year to the territorial administrations holding social services throughout Spain, and estimates that the cost to the city council would be very high depending on its size and population.
Peñas affirms, that being a necessary action, it needs a better regulation since it is not ethical the formula of the "I invite, you pay", a formula applied under a pure political opportunism that will lead in dangerous perverse effects, between which they emphasize the important Budgetary impact on municipalities and communities, neither planned nor agreed in the body that should have known and addressed the matter (Territorial Council of Social Services), which will also generate serious territorial inequalities in addressing the issue.
From IU-Greens recall that just a few days ago the political formation released the latest AIS Group report in which Lorca appeared as the fourth largest municipality of 50,000 Spanish people with a higher poverty rate anchored (after another is known in 2015 in which Our municipality appeared as the third poorest).
Peñas attributed this situation to the lack of investments in social policy material, both in programs and services, as well as in personnel and warn that adding the payment of the social electricity bonus to the small municipal budget allocated to social services, instead of assuming it the government of Spain that promotes it, will generate an impossible management overhead for services and for professionals, who during the crisis saw the demand multiplied and resources depleted and also that it is an antipedagogic and paternalistic rule, since to assume the obligation Direct payment from the administration is not going in the right direction, if the basis is to exempt users from their role in their insertion process.
In another order of things, they consider in IU-Greens that this is a very partial measure in their protection (can not we cut the light, but the gas?) And also social services will be forced to share information of citizens with Private companies that will "activate" these public services when they deem it appropriate.
As regards access to aid, Peñas believes that some circumstances (large families regardless of income) are positively discriminated against, while others, which are much more punished today (single parenting or loneliness) are not taken into account.
In relation to energy consumption, they assert that it will increase the same in these households to the maximum established, using electrical appliances for heating without any control over the environment and energy efficiency.
From the IU-Verdes point out that, regardless of how badly this decree (in social protection theory) is designed, totally designed under the prism of welfare, the government forgets the fundamental question: the approach to poverty .
They point out that poverty is a more global and complex phenomenon and it is a priority to address the debate on how to ensure - by dignity, not by charity - that households have the minimum incomes that enable them to be managed and more in a context in which the Work no longer guarantees the vital project.
They point out that this issue does not concern only the Social Services, so they ask the mayor to rebel against these regulations and require their superiors from the regional government and the government of the nation that before issuing decrees like this, with deficiencies So clear and precise, that they ensure sufficient funding for social service centers to implement effective and sustainable social policies, away from the continuous cuts they have been experiencing in recent years, even before the crisis, and to address the treatment of Poverty from a holistic and interdisciplinary perspective.
Source: IU-verdes Lorca
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