Overview
- The ministry’s seventh SAAD panel, presented Monday, shows waiting lists at their lowest on record while 134,734 people still await a valuation or a service and the national average wait is about 293 days.
- The number of people receiving effective dependency benefits reached a new high of 1,748,901, rising by 41,573 in the last quarter as the system served more people than it received new requests.
- Madrid approved a 2026 real decreto-ley that begins transfers on 1 July and commits roughly €6.2 billion for 2026–27 together with a reform that requires the State to assume 50% of system investment.
- Territorial gaps remain large with Ceuta at about 75 days versus Murcia at about 529 days, and Andalucía has cut its wait by 224 days since December 2020 but still records one of the longest average waits and reported thousands of deaths in 2025 among people waiting for help.
- The SAAD is run by Spain’s autonomous communities and the government says quarterly panels, funding and legal changes will speed access by easing finance and paperwork; regions will need to hire staff and expand services to meet targets to halve lists in 2027 and eliminate them in 2028.