The Deputy of the Common, Lola Padrón, stated this Tuesday that it is unacceptable and "goes beyond what is acceptable" for the Canary Islands administration to take four years to recognize a disability, and has denounced that the General Directorate of Disability has not submitted the requested information after this institution opened an investigation ex officio.
The procedure for recognizing and reviewing the degree of disability must be resolved within six months, according to current legislation, recalls the Deputy of the Common, but the Government of the Canary Islands takes four and even five years.
A term that is increasing, as are the complaints in this area submitted by citizens to the Deputy of the Common, 80% more in eleven months of 2024 than those registered in all of 2023, according to the data provided.
Lola Padrón has made an appeal on the occasion of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities to all administrations and society to facilitate their access to education, employment, health services, transportation and public spaces.
"We must act urgently and we cannot wait for studies or diagnoses, we must put a solution in place now", emphasized the Deputy of the Common in a statement.
The process to recognize a disability takes four and even five years and is characterized by excessive bureaucracy, lack of specialized personnel, delays in the assessment of applications and lack of transparency in the process, according to those affected before the Deputy of the Common.
In fact, the area of disability is the one that processes the most complaints, and increases year after year: in 2019 there were 125 complaints, in 2020 there were 144, in 2021 they rose to 208, in 2022 to 274, in 2023 to 310 and in eleven months of 2024 there are already 563.
This means that complaints in the first eleven months of 2024 are 80% more than in all of 2023 and 350% more than five years ago.
The main reason for complaint is that delay of years in the resolution of the degree and in the review of the degree of disability, essential to exercise other rights and benefits inherent to that situation.
Other complaints are directed to accessibility and the difficulties imposed on people with disabilities by physical, sensory and cognitive barriers, as well as the need for residential and care places.
The lack of recognition of disability leads to people with 95 years with serious mobility problems not being able to have a parking card for the transport of people with disabilities, Lola Padrón cites as an example of the consequences of bureaucratic delay.
Another example: there are school-age minors who need their disability to be recognized in order to access therapies and adaptations without which they will not be able to develop adequately.
"For all these people, the delay periods mean added suffering to their disability situation and a loss of opportunities that is difficult to repair", warns the Deputy of the Common.
For Lola Padrón, the Valuation and Orientation Teams (EVO) in charge of carrying out the valuation and qualification of the degree of disability support a volume of citizen demand much higher than they can manage.
That is why an ex officio investigation was initiated, to "adequately dimension the staff that the EVO and the General Directorate of Disability have", as well as the real demand and waiting lists that exist in said service.
"That information has not yet been attended to by the General Directorate of Disability", denounces the Deputy of the Common.
Lola Padrón points out as possible solutions more staff, review and simplify administrative procedures, promote coordination between the different services involved and clearly inform applicants about the status of their applications.
The Canary Islands, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics, is the second autonomous community with the highest rate of people with disabilities, 115 per thousand inhabitants.
It is estimated that 10% of the population has some type of disability, which is equivalent to about 212,000 people, of which 56% are women and 44% men.
Approximately 30% of people with disabilities are unemployed, a rate higher than that of the general population.
