Attempts to de-familiarise care: the Spanish dependency law

Abstract

The socio-demographic changes that Spain has experienced in recent decades revealed the unsustainability of the traditional caregiving system based exclusively on the care provided by family members. In the new scenario, attending to situations of dependency started to be seen as a ‘social problem’ which required public intervention. The Spanish Dependency Law was the response to this demand. However, from among the measures of support available for dependents, cash-for-care to family members were given precedence, rather than the creation of public services to accomplish this purpose. Using the terminology on family care regimes, this article demonstrates that the imbalance which diminishes the role of public services in favour of financial support paid to relatives causes unwanted effects (perpetuation of the feminisation/re-familiarisation of care in this instance) and makes care for dependents more vulnerable, being contingent upon governments’ short-term budget policy, as has occurred with austerity policies during the current crisis.

Keywords:

• care
• de-familiarisation
• family care regimes
• Spanish dependency law
• cash-for-care
• social spending cuts
• caregivers

Notes

1. The term ‘family network’ relates to the complex environment of generational exchange which take place between family members, principally women, with regard to caregiving (Barbadillo & Gómez, 2011).

2. The Survey on Family Research Networks in Andalusia (Encuesta de Relaciones Familiares en Andalucía), supported by the European Social Fund, is one of the most comprehensive investigations into the structure and functioning of family networks in Spain carried out to date. In total, 10,000 individuals were interviewed for 2–3 hours and asked to explain all their family relationships in detail.

3. The word ‘intervention’ is used as a generic term that includes all the benefits for the dependent population derived from the law: cash transfers, services (help at home, day and night centres and residential care) and others (specific allowances). In this respect, a cash transfer to a non-professional caregiver would be considered as one intervention, the allocation of one person in a nursing home would be another intervention and so on.

4. In the sense of Robert K. Merton’s assertion (1980 [1976]): The consequences of an action are the result of the reciprocal influence of the action and the conditions of the action, i.e. the objective situation in which it is performed (p. 174).

5. The first amendment took the form of the ‘Royal Decree-Law 20/2011 of 30 December, on urgent budgetary, taxation and financial measures to correct the public deficit’ (Real Decreto-Ley 20/2011, de 30 de diciembre, de medidas urgentes en materia presupuestaria, tributaria y financiera para la corrección del déficit público). In March 2012, an allocation of 283 million euros for dependency services was cut from the General State Budget. The third measure, however, was the one which had the most resounding impact (AEDGSS, 2013), as it reformed 14 articles of the Law through ‘Decree-law 20 /2012 of 13 July, on measures for ensuring budgetary stability and for fostering competitiveness’ (Decreto-ley 20/2012 de 13 de julio, de medidas para garantizar la estabilidad presupuestaria y de fomento de la competitividad).