The ministry will include these workers “immediately” to speed up three-month waiting lists and improve benefits processing
The Social Security Administration is being strengthened in the face of the collapsing situation and will “immediately” take in 1,615 employees. This was announced on Thursday by the Secretary of State for Social Security and Pensions, Borja Suárez, who pointed out that this staff increase will be aimed at “strengthening civil care”, after unions denounced three-month waiting lists in recent months. stated. to be seen in the office. And not only that: those who succeed in applying for a benefit take an average of three to four months to collect it.
The new positions will initially be filled by interim officers whose hiring will be processed immediately, the ministry said in a statement. Specifically, 645 will be integrated into subgroup A2 and 970, into subgroup C1. This is the first net increase in the Social Security workforce in the past ten years and will allow for a 7.42% workforce increase for the system as a whole (8.43% if only taking into account the expansion of the scope of the National Institute of Health account) of Social Security and the General Treasury of Social Security).
However, this reinforcement will be insufficient to address the serious staff shortages facing Social Security, which has lost more than 6,500 officials over the past decade. Faced with this decline, the workload faced by civil servants is increasing: the number of pensions is increasing month by month, as are the affiliates, to which new management skills must be added, such as the Minimum Vital Income, with the multiple changes it registers, or the functionaries of the passive classes. In addition, Social Security experienced an extraordinary increase in activity during the pandemic and has processed four million victims as a result of covid, benefits for 1.5 million self-employed or the exemptions of 3.6 million employees in ERTE.
To cope with all these benefits, the body has a staff of less than 25,000 troops: there are 24,298 people despite the fact that the recognized positions are 31,766, so it has a deficit of 7,468 positions, well above the 1,600 that will be included, according to CSIF estimates.
In addition, the union warns that 28.5% of the current workforce will retire within five years, while another 36.08% will leave their position in 10 years; that is, nearly two-thirds of the current workforce is retiring, causing the organization to collapse. For this reason, CSIF recently called for a shock plan with the urgent hiring of interim staff, as public employment offers take an average of two years to resolve.
Source: La Verdad

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