Weak welfare, poorer society

Only 34% of the Spanish society is experiencing a situation of “full integration”, while the population living a situation of “social exclusion” involves almost twelve million people, five million of which in a situation of “severe exclusion”.It is one of the findings of the seventh 2014 Foessa Report on exclusion and social development in Spain, that warns against the rupture of the social contract underlying the welfare system in the Country. The Report was presented a few days ago in Madrid by the Foessa Foundation (Fomento de Estudios Sociales y de Sociología Aplicada, Promotion of social studies and applied sociology) and by Caritas Spain. Snapshot of the situation. The findings of the Foessa Report, presented by Sebastián Mora, executive director of Foessa for Caritas Spain, and by Francisco Lorenzo, coordinator of the Report, responsible of Caritas Studies, offered elements of concern regarding the effects of the crisis on the social structure of the Country, as well as reasons for hope, especially regarding family networks, social participation, solidarity and volunteering. Among the problems affecting the current social development model, figure high levels of wage inequalities, limited redistributive capacities of the tax-system, reduction of benefits, poor sensitivity to families’ needs. The Report underlines that the effects of the crisis on income are reasons for concern, since the percentage of families hit by problems of material deprivation and low income has increased by almost 50% in the past years. Precariousness hits areas such as housing and health. On a population of almost 12 million people in a situation of social exclusion, 77.1% have problems with their job, 61.7% housing and 46% healthcare problems. A mortgaged generation. Families in the most dire situations are those with many children and many young family members, the latter further penalized by the crisis, to the extent that the Report describes them as a “mortgaged generation”.To this should be added the “expelled generation” of workers who are no longer present on the job market and cannot find a job. When analysing the effects of austerity policies in Spain and the European Union, the research confirmed that cuts to social services and welbeing are incompatible with the objective of poverty-reduction envisaged in the Community strategy “Europe 2020”. Strengths. The Report dedicates a large part of its analyses to the evaluation of strengths of Spanish society. Family solidarity and aid networks, which despite risks of weakness continue to resist, were described as “social capital”. Another positive aspect that emerges is the large number of volunteering initiatives and collective action, mutual cooperation and exchange of experiences, that channelled the energies of associations. And even if a part of the social and cultural capital has been destroyed, there is another part of it – the researchers said – that is evolving, creating networks, rediscovering values and regenerating institutions. These new initiatives are based on the dynamics of the digital capital. Some proposals. The Foessa Foundation offers society, public powers and social and economic workers a set of proposals based on three keynote themes encompassing social development, the effects of poverty and the building of the common good. Among the proposals figure the assessment of political action in terms of impact on healthcare, education, employment, redistribution of wealth; basic social protection standards based throughout the Country through a “guaranteed minimum” system; the development of social protection based on strengthened public social services, the development of an ethical redistributive commitment that will draw Spain closer to the European average; social expenditure as “social investment”, giving priority to those areas catering for the elimination of inequalities such as healthcare, education, pensions and minimum wage; the development of efficient family policies with sufficient resources along with the adoption of measures preventing the cross-generational transmission of poverty which – Foessa warns – is a latent peril today, and the most serious one for the future.