At the close of the first semester of the year, the dependency limbo was led by the Canary Islands, with 35.4% of people waiting to receive a benefit, according to the latest report from the State Observatory for Dependency, prepared with provisional official data by the State Association of Directors and Managers in Social Services.
The study, made public this Monday, highlights that the Canary Islands is the autonomous community where the number of people in the dependency limbo has increased the most in 2025, 44.2%, and that 51.7% of those who are in this situation in the country reside in three regions: Catalonia (39,755), Andalusia (18,749) and the archipelago itself (15,171).
This report also states that the communities that have increased the most the number of beneficiaries with benefits last year have been Galicia (+ 10%), the Canary Islands (+ 6.7%) and Asturias (+ 5.9%).
The Observatory also highlights that the Canary Islands is the autonomous community where the number of people with the right to benefit has increased the most so far in 2025, an increase that has been 17.5%.
Regarding the administrative agility indicator, which is calculated according to the average time recorded from the application to the resolution of the file, the Canary Islands is at the bottom of the list, only ahead of Andalusia and Murica, with an average response of 521 days, when, by regulation, the maximum period is 180 days, although this period has been reduced in the islands by 40 days compared to the previous one.
For the State Association of Directors and Managers in Social Services, these delays are "unacceptable, after 18 years of implementation of the Law" and among its reasons, it alludes to the two chained administrative procedures established by the majority of autonomous communities: resolution of the degree of dependency and resolution of benefit or service that the person will enjoy.
This means that, "many times, by the time such resolutions arrive, the person's situation has changed so much that it is necessary to start again by reviewing their degree or their benefits".
The professional group considers that the shock plan for dependency has meant an important advance in the reduction of waiting lists, but regrets that, however, it has not met the expected reduction objectives due to a paralysis in the increase of investment for dependency.
It explains that the waiting list has been gradually reduced "from the zenith that meant the entry into the system of dependent people with grade I, in July 2015", when the people with the right pending to receive service or benefit reached 442,000.
Since then, and until the end of 2024, it has been gradually reduced, although this 2025 is representing a change in the trend, since "16,536 people are waiting for some dependency procedure more than at the beginning of the year, for a total of 286,861 people".
Two out of three of these people are in Catalonia (77,745 people), Andalusia (50,303 people), the Valencian Community (33,115 people) and the Canary Islands (28,867).
In relation to the number of applicants, 12.8% of people would be waiting for some type of procedure and the Canary Islands (37.8%), Murcia (21.9%) and Catalonia (19.3%) are the communities with the highest percentage of people waiting, the report adds.
However, in these first six months of the year and with absolute data, the Canary Islands (-2,803) leads the decrease in the number of people on the waiting list.