Pablo Bustinduy at Esade: 'We must establish a deinstitutionalized model for the care of the elderly'"
"We must create a care-at-home model for the elderly,” said Pablo Bustinduy, minister of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and 2030 Agenda, during his talk at Esade Madrid. In the framework of the ‘Conversations with Toni Roldán’ series organized by EsadeEcPol, the minister explained that the policies originally implemented in the last two decades in response to the need for care arising over the last century consisted of “building bigger and more care homes”. “In the wake of the pandemic, the care industry was hit by an economic, political and social tsunami”, he said, emphasizing that this showed that the solution had accentuated inequality and “is not sustainable”. According to Bustinduy, “92% of the persons in this situation would rather continue to live in their own homes and neighborhood”.
However, as the minister underlined, “the good news is that care is making its way onto the public agenda" and that efforts are being made to overhaul the Dependency Law in order to ensure more funding and better socio-professional and working conditions for workers in this industry, workers who have been invisible until now and are linked to the shadow economy. He also stressed that he believes the care sector to be “crucial for Spain’s economy and politics” and that “it should be addressed from a standpoint of consensus.”
Gender gap, work-life balance and childhood
Bustinduy acknowledged that at least as far as salaries and job opportunities are concerned, the gender gap “has narrowed thanks to the Labor Reform and policies to lengthen paid leave”, although, as he explained, striking a work-life balance is still “an obstacle course that also creates inequality.”
The situation is similar with child poverty, which affects one in three Spanish children, “inexplicably in Europe’s fourth largest economy.” “This issue costs as much as 5% of Spain’s GDP and is one of the largest debts of Spanish democracy. Our aim is to reduce it by half,” he said.
“I think that there’s now a consensus that both broadbased and pinpointed approaches are needed,” continued the Minister of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and Agenda 2030. He feels that the problem with broadbased policies is that “they don’t reach the persons who need them most.” “We must move towards transforming aid into rights,” he explained before highlighting the importance of the Royal Decree on School Canteens, “it’s a matter of common sense, but it has a great impact.”
Housing: a dysfunctional market
Bustinduy also addressed housing, another unequal scenario where “politics don’t talk about what is being said on the street.” “Housing today is a mechanism for generating income with very little added value.” In his words, “the dysfunctional housing market forces many families to spend more than 40% of their income on rent. In his opinion, one of the measures to remedy this situation would be restrictions on buying houses in areas with housing shortages for anything other than residential use. Finally, he made a plea for “the construction of subsidized housing to avoid the mistakes of the past.”
