The government reforms the dependency and disability laws to improve benefits and cut bureaucracy

Moncloa Palace, Madrid

Minister Pablo Bustinduy, together with Minister Pilar Alegría, Second Vice President Yolanda Díaz, and Minister Óscar López, answer questions from the press. (Pool Moncloa / Jose Manuel Álvarez)

The Council of Ministers has sent to Parliament the joint reform of the laws on the rights of persons with disabilities and the promotion of personal autonomy and care for dependent people.

The Minister for Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and 2030 Agenda, Pablo Bustinduy, stated that "it is possibly the most important social reform of this legislature". The goal, he added, is to "lay the foundations of a public and universal system that enshrines the right of citizens to well-being, to be cared for, to equality and to live a full life in conditions of freedom and autonomy".

Bustinduy stressed that the bill has been enriched since its initial version with contributions from civil society, the autonomous communities, the Economic and Social Council and social agents. The result is an "ambitious text with the broadest possible consensus" that embodies two central objectives: to implement the reform of article 49 of the Constitution, approved in 2024, and to provide the dependency system with the tools needed to face the challenges posed by increased longevity and social transformations. The reform is a "Copernican revolution", as it does not focus on managing places in care homes, but on meeting people's needs and preferences.

Dependency and disability: new rights and benefits

The minister summed up the reform's focus on "new rights, more services and better benefits, less bureaucracy and more technology".

The Minister of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and 2030 Agenda, Pablo Bustinduy, at the press conference after the Council of Ministers. | Pool Moncloa / Jose Manuel Álvarez

Bustinduy highlighted two of the rights enshrined in the reform. Firstly, the right to universal accessibility, which obliges public authorities to create accessible environments in all public spaces and to remove physical or cognitive barriers affecting people with disabilities. In order to ensure the enjoyment of historical and cultural heritage, a state programme for the promotion of universal accessibility has been created, and to facilitate accessibility works in dwellings and buildings, the Horizontal Property Law has been amended. Secondly, the regulation enshrines the universal right to telecare, which will also have a complementary nature, which is to say that it must always be complemented by other resources.

With regard to benefits, the minister explained that, for the first time, public administrations will provide disability and mobility aids and support equipment such as wheelchairs and articulated beds. A personal assistance service is also being created, which rather than being limited to education and work, will support people in everyday activities. Home help will be extended outside the home for needs such as going to the doctor or shopping. Other changes include the extension of family care benefits to non-blood relatives, the conversion of daycare centres into multi-service centres and the creation of a transitional benefit in cases where the requested resource is not available.

Less bureaucracy, more technology

The cuts to bureaucracy include measures such as the elimination of incompatibility between dependency benefits and services and the elimination of the two-year suspension period for cash benefits for family caregivers (the maximum waiting period for receiving the recognised benefit). In addition, procedures for reviewing individual care plans are being streamlined, emergency procedures are being created for particularly vulnerable cases, social and health care coordination is being strengthened and benefits and employment are being made compatible. Bustinduy also pointed out that gateways have been established for the automatic recognition of disability based on the dependency assessment.

The Minister of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and 2030 Agenda, Pablo Bustinduy, during the press conference after the Council of Ministers. | Pool Moncloa / Jose Manuel Álvarez

Finally, the reform takes into account technological developments in areas such as robotics, home automation and artificial intelligence. In this line, it creates a centre to generate the public infrastructure to improve provision and develop a strategic care industry, incorporates a special legal regime for pilot projects in social innovation and prohibits discrimination on the grounds of disability in the development of artificial intelligence and algorithms.

The law, in short, aims to "create the welfare state of the 21st century", according to Bustinduy, who remarked that this commitment "is backed by facts" such as the distribution of 783 million euros to the autonomous communities to finance the dependency system. The minister pointed out that investment in this area has quadrupled since 2014: "There is no precedent in social policy for a fiscal effort of this magnitude".

Public employment offer: citizen service and digitalisation

The Council of Ministers has approved the Public Employment Offer (OEP) for the year 2025, with 36,588 vacancies including those for the National Police Corps, the Civil Guard and the Armed Forces. There are 26,889 vacancies corresponding to the State Administration, 70% of them for new recruits (20,324) and the remaining 30% for internal promotion (6,565).

The Minister for Digital Transformation and Civil Service, Óscar López, remarked that since 2018 an average of 32,552 positions have been created per year, three times more than in the previous stage. The keys to the 2025 OEP, he explained, are the reinforcement of the welfare state, the reversal of cuts, the digitalisation of the civil service and the improvement of direct attention for citizens. It has been drawn up on the basis of data and human resources criteria, as well as on the technological and digital resources available to the administration, which means taking "steps on the road to designing the civil service of the future", according to López.
The Minister for Digital Transformation and Civil Service, Óscar López, during the press conference after the Council of Ministers. | Pool Moncloa / Jose Manuel Álvarez

A total of 8,851 newly created posts will strengthen the direct attention for citizens in services such as the National ID (DNI) document issuing offices, the Social Security, the State Public Employment Service (SEPE), the Directorate General of Traffic (DGT), the immigration offices, the Land Registry and the territorial justice offices. The goal is to achieve "more direct, closer, more agile and more efficient public services", in the words of the minister.

Óscar López argued that the 2025 OEP also contributes to rejuvenating the public service workforce and guarantees the constitutional right to equality for people with disabilities, for whom 10% of posts in the General State Administration are reserved.

With regard to progress in digitalisation, the minister pointed out that, according to data from the European Commission, Spain is six points above the European average. He also pointed out that Spain has risen to 17th place out of 193 countries in the UN E-Government Development Index (EGDI).

Active Employment Support Strategy 2025-2028

The Council of Ministers has approved the Spanish Active Employment Support Strategy 2025-2028, which aims to improve employability in Spain.

The Second Vice-President of the Government of Spain and Minister for Labour and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz, stressed that the law has been agreed with the autonomous communities and social agents and stressed that it addresses employment policies as a subjective and universal right: "Citizens have the right to improve their employability and receive training, and we do so universally. This system is not for the unemployed, it is to improve the employability of the entire National Employment System, including the autonomous communities".

The Minister for Labour and Social Economy, Yolanda Díaz, during the press conference after the Council of Ministers. | Pool Moncloa / Jose Manuel Álvarez

The new strategy gives priority to the most vulnerable groups, such as people with disabilities, unskilled women and victims of gender-based violence, young people and the long-term unemployed.

In this regard, Yolanda Díaz announced that her department is working to improve the employability of autistic people and that eight autonomous communities have programmes for the labour insertion of women who are victims of gender-based violence and trafficking.

The Second Vice-President recalled that there are more than three million young people in employment in Spain, and the country now has the lowest youth unemployment figure in democracy, but they are people without training and the Government's aim is to act so they receive training. Díaz also stressed that the structural problem is the long-term unemployed, especially older women. To improve their employability, the government has earmarked 633 million euros.

Active policies also for the self-employed

Yolanda Díaz stressed that the strategy is the first multi-annual planning to be carried out within the framework of the new Employment Law, which will guarantee stable resources and actions. In addition, the regulation sets quantitative and qualitative targets for each autonomous community.

On the other hand, the minister referred to the technological overhaul of the Public Employment Service, which is using 'big data' to create an individualised profile of the people who claim the right and to draw up precise actions: "We are becoming more efficient and improving a public service".

Minister Pablo Bustinduy together with Minister Pilar Alegría, Second Vice-President Yolanda Díaz, and Minister Óscar López, during the press conference after the Council of Ministers. | Pool Moncloa / Jose Manuel Álvarez

The strategy will also benefit the self-employed. In fact, the Second Vice-President pointed out that we have a record number of self-employed people working, 122,600 of whom have been trained by the Public Employment Service, as well as another 160,000 in the social economy.

There are more than 4 million actions in total, Díaz argued: "A lot of people demand the services to retrain or update their skills, or even change profession and improve their position in the labour market. Active employment policies have increased by 54% in Spain since the coalition government was formed, the vice-president concluded.

In terms of employment, the Executive also approved today the Annual Plan for the Promotion of Decent Employment 2025 and has allocated 139 million euros to labour insertion programmes through works or services of general and social interest, and on-the-job training. Yolanda Díaz announced that this aid will be used to fund programmes such as TándEM and Investigo, which will be joined by the Fundación Secretariado Gitano, the Fundación Ciudad de la Energía and the National Library of Spain.

Subsidies for local authorities affected by the DANA

The Minister for Education, Vocational Training and Sports and Government Spokesperson, Pilar Alegría, announced the approval of a 72.3 million subsidy for 14 entities and local authorities in the Valencian Community affected by the DANA. The spokesperson cited among the beneficiaries of this aid Valencia Provincial Council, which will receive 22 million euros; Paiporta Town Council, with almost 17 million; and Alfafar Town Council, which will receive a total of 6.6 million.

In order to increase efficiency in the management of these grants, entities may receive payment without the need to submit in advance the supporting accounts with all invoices, which may be submitted subsequently, within three months from the day following the date of payment.

The Minister for Education, Vocational Training and Sports, Pilar Alegría, at the press conference after the Council of Ministers. | Pool Moncloa / Jose Manuel Álvarez

Other current affairs: Incidents in Torre Pacheco

In her responses to the media, Pilar Alegría made reference to the violent incidents that have taken place in the Murcian municipality of Torre Pacheco in recent hours, which she said the government "roundly" condemns. Alegría also acknowledged the "magnificent work" of the State Security Forces and Corps in this scenario, and highlighted the 13 arrests made to date as proof of this work.

On this point, in view of the "feeling of concern" that these incidents may arouse in the public, the minister proposed a reflection on hate speech: "Our country is nothing like those violent people who mistreat it with the excuse of defending Spain; fortunately, our country is open, plural, diverse, modern, welcoming", the spokesperson stressed, highlighting numerous facts to support this idea.

The crime rate - "one of the lowest in the world" - has fallen by 6 points since 2011, and 73% of all crimes in Spain were committed by Spanish nationals, according to the latest available data for 2023. On the economic front, the minister pointed out that foreign nationals contribute 10% of Social Security income, and 25% of the growth in GDP per capita is attributed to workers born outside Spain. "These are the real figures", concluded Alegría, who ended by expressing the government's commitment "to combat hatred and intolerance".

Non official translation