Data provided by the Basque Government show that more and more money is being allocated to the IGR: In 2013, 435 million euros were mobilized, in 2014 it was 472 million, in 2015 it was 488 million and in 2016 it was 492 million. (To learn more about the IGR, Mikel Garcia’s rich feel comfortable, the poor on the embankment can resort to the juicy article.)

First of all, Liz Quintana, Sorgin and Anitzak and Munduko Emakumeak, from Argitan, Association of Women of the World, advise us to see where part of what tells you about Income Guarantee Income: “The IGR is a right, a temporary instrument necessary for people in socio-economic conditions to move forward. Seeing that there are increasingly precarious works and knowing the reality, most of the citizens should think that we can also find ourselves in that situation, at some point”. On the contrary, in the treatment of GI many people have a basic premise: “Those who receive the IGR deceive us.” From this point of view, politicians regulate income perception criteria. The statements are made through the dissemination of this suspicion. The media echoes them and provides them with surprising cases that are complemented by half-truths, as will be seen below. According to Vicky Molina, of Lanbide Affected: "Politicians insult us every day in the press. The Employment and Social Policy Counselor, Beatriz Artolazabal, for example, suggested that we were falling into relief. I told him in Parliament that he should try his pharmacy to know what he says, charging only the RGI a few months to pass. Those who have a salary of 3,000 euros a month can be comfortable, while we do not enter with them.” There are also workers from the Basque Employment Agency Lanbide, which manages the RGI, who provide preventive care to citizens at the window. The analysis of the bakery and bar puts pressure on the street. And then, we are surprised that in daily life we do not see the situation of the 63,300 families that perceive the IGR: “Shatter stigmas. They experience their situation with guilt and society makes them feel scammer,” Quintana explained.

Molina reminds us that this basis of deception is false: “Lanbide data indicates that fraud is 0.3% among IGR recipients. Conversely, the share of public entities managed by the PNV stands at 14%. Put the digital mark on the politicians who are in public institutions.”

Unintelligible papers and laws

In
2012, Patxi López transferred to Lanbide the management of the RGI that until then were carried out by the social workers of the people. Quintana has pointed out that “as in everything, there are people and people, but the social workers are in the village, they know the situation, the environment and the trajectory of the RGI applicants, and the treatment goes beyond paper issues”.

Lanbide's
worker, Inés Unanue, has explained that the training received to manage the IGR refers to the law. From there, each worker has at his/her disposal the follow-up of each case: “I have an employment relationship with the social worker of the people, but I cannot tell you whether or not it is done in the other offices.”

Quintana explains that justifying everything by paper instead of knowing each
case creates absurd situations: “With the prejudice of fraud and homophobia, it is recognized that two people of the same sex who live in the same house form two cohabitation units, so both can receive the IGR individually, and not so if they are men and women. And the criterion in this regard is that “there is no one who can believe that a woman and a man live in the same house if they are not a couple.” It denounces that unmarried persons may not be subject to tax or other obligations. Throughout the report you will read more justifying situations of everything by paper.

The persons
to whom the IGR is addressed shall, within 15 days, communicate with the relevant documentation any change in their socio-economic situation in Lanbide. In addition, every three months they have to go to the office to seal it. All the people we have talked to have told us that it is not uncommon for these dates to pass and that it is often not done out of bad will. Such an error may result in IGR not being perceived by the whole family (including minors) for one month and IGR being withdrawn three times. Molina complains about the insistence of presenting the papers: “When we first asked for the RGI, we signed the approval for Lanbide to have access to our data from the other institutions: social security, finance... So why is it asking us, within 15 days, for the data at your disposal to be presented repeatedly? When they send us fines it is based on that data!” At the end of the article you can read the answer of Councillor Artolazabal to this question.

Working
Unanue has told us that they have more and more access to data from other institutions and that there are more and more collaborations (now also to the Ertzaintza) that will facilitate their work.

The three coincide in one thing: The arguments and requests that Lanbide gives to IGR recipients are not made in understandable language, they often do not know exactly what is being asked of them or the people working on it. Those who come to the associations receive advice, but there are still many on the way, according to Quintana.

Predominance of hidden criteria

The
IGR Act regulates the basis for its receipt, as well as the grounds for suspension or deletion. “The difficulties in interpreting the law have arisen,” said the worker Unanue. He added that these specific interpretations would be appreciated if workers were made known.

Quintana has pointed out that “in addition to this law that is public, there are internal criteria that are applied on a daily basis, which are not public. And they are the ones who decide who to give and who to remove the IGR.”

Both Quintana and Molina have stated that the recipients of the RGI normally do many things in daily life, not knowing that they are infringing Lanbide's internal criteria, and that then comes the surprise penalty. On February 20, 2017, Molina denounced in Parliament with severity (here you have all the videos of this working session): “Is it a serious mistake to have coffee? Is it a serious failure to pay for the after-school activities of children (as a tool for the education and integration of children)? Is it a serious flaw to go to the hairdresser (with the appearance of getting a job)?” Molina has denounced that “all of Lanbide’s faults are serious – they take away a month’s revenue. There are no minor faults – a fine of up to 30% – or very serious – up to EUR 3,000. They solve it with hammer blows.” A rule that is considered an error is that if for 15 days you have to leave the CAPV, you have to ask for permission. In Molina’s words, “this is not legal for the locals either (in the case of immigrants it is legal).”

Oppressed women and immigrants

The
analysis of Lanbide's policies from a feminist point of view is detailed in the work which criteria collide with the reality of women, leaving no possibility of obtaining the IGR. One of the most painful cases is the need for women to take the necessary steps to prove that they have been mistreated: the first is the need to present an order of removal. Quintana has warned that "women should not be sent out or not" and that to do so they should be denounced and that many battered women do not want to take that step out of fear, among other things. It calls for it to be possible to demonstrate otherwise, for example, by means of reports from social workers. He added, “Lanbide reassures us over and over again that in each office there is a person trained in violence against women. That the battered woman should manifest in the window in this situation and that at that moment she is attended by the specialized worker. To begin with, the surrealist who trusts that he will be seen mistreated in a crowded office. But I went to the office to help a woman in that situation, we said she had been mistreated and we were not served by a skilled worker. Lanbide tells us that this is guaranteed, but in the case that I have lived and in which I know it has not been so.”

The report also highlights the difficulties that homeworkers have in being registered, as their employers often do not want to register at the home where they work and sleep, and denounces the existence of a black census market. In the case of household workers and cleaners, another injustice is that when the owner takes off the contract he says that “the worker has voluntarily interrupted the work” and that the word of the worker is not taken into account, so the possibility of receiving the IGR is lost.

Quintana also denounces the need to assume the work in any way: “The person in charge of the children cannot give up their work, even if that means that the children cannot be cared for. The solution that Lanbide offers them in these situations is to go to the Council, to welcome the children! These parents have no problem taking care of their children, the only problem they have is the economic one.”

Molina says that conditions for immigrants are not fair either: “How is it possible that every two years foreigners are asked for papers to prove that they have no property or heritage in their country of origin? It's enough with a certificate the first time, or every four or five years. This means an expenditure of between EUR 200 and EUR 500, when you can send them these documents here. And when they cannot be sent, the person has to travel to their origin and ask for a loan for it.”

Lanbide: failures or mismanagement of people?

Molina lists in Parliament the “bad practices of Lanbide”. Some of them include: Withdrawal from the IGR, without time to argue, for having received the letter to the citizen 15 days later: “This Christmas has been a lot of cases.” Lanbide paid 9 euros a month to a woman from Lasarte for her salary to reach the minimum income. Within a certain period of time, his salary was EUR 50 more than the minimum wage. And Lanbide has taken him EUR 59 in that period, the EUR 50 he earned on his salary. He's going to trial. Another bad practice is that citizens’ payroll is inflated (proof of this), that for a working day is counted all month as working... In the final interview of the article, one can read Artolazabal's response to these allegations.

The question arises whether these are people's failures or whether they are the result of poor management. In Quintana’s words, “it is mismanagement.” Based on these cases, he says that there is a principle of fraud and that some workers deny the evidence: “For example, until the judgments are firm, they are not communicated to the public and therefore cannot present them in Lanbide. Citizens present the certificates in the Lanbide office within 15 days of being heard, but we have a case that is not recognized because the Lanbide office insists on the first date of the judgment, in which the sentence was not final and in which the citizen could not know anything about it.”

Not all
workers in the profession have a similar role to play. Quintana has pointed out that, according to what he touches on the window, they send him to ask for clarification on a letter that is not understood, “then he puts what he has to bring and I cannot give him more information”. Other workers, of course, try to get to know their case and help them from there. The role of the window workers is to provide the most complete and clear information possible on rights and obligations, as well as to serve as an intermediary between the institution and the citizen, to inform the citizen of the possibilities it has in its situation.

As he explained at
the beginning of the report, Quintana explained that each Lanbide worker treats whether he understands the IGR as a right or as a tax fraud. Molina denounces that window treatment is sometimes humiliating: “If you’re so bad, why don’t you commit suicide?” one worker said and we publicly denounce it. The director of an office told our secretary that ‘it’s nice to fatten the ass on the couch, right? What does your man do if his family doesn't go ahead? Because the children will be yours, of course...’ Immigrants are the ones who suffer the most, ‘I don’t care if you die under the bridge or on the red street’… There are also people who do their job very well.”

How is it possible to generate debt?

LANBIDE paid the income of the previous month at the beginning of the next month. Suppose that the perceptive person of the IGR signs an employment contract and communicates it in Lanbide within 15 days. The most common thing will be that in the beginning of the following month, the IGR perceives the number until then, until it becomes aware of the situation of Lanbide welcoming, resolves and executes the change. According to data provided by the Basque Government, in 2016, 22,000 cases of non-payment (a total of EUR 132 million) involved some 55,000 recipients. Of these undue payments, 26.1 million were returned.

However, Molina has asked a severe question: “If recipients report any changes within 15 days, how is it possible that Lanbide has a delay of four years, accumulating debts of 40.000-50,000 euros?” That is the question we have put to Unanue. It tells us that these cases are from the first years of Lanbide management, which have been accumulating debt over time.

Boring, in his capacity as Minister of Employment and Social Policy, in 2014 he sent letters to thousands of RGI recipients claiming debt. “The letters were not personalized, there was no explanation for each one’s debt, and we reproached him in Parliament for making prevarication.” Aburto replied that he had not wanted to offend the recipients, but to demonstrate his willingness to return the money, and that the sending of the letters had not been done well and would not be repeated.

Molina has described as "scam" this debt of 100,000 cohabitation units and has denounced that "dossiers are imprisoned". “We know that they are kept in a warehouse in Bilbao for years and when they accumulate debt they claim.” It has denounced that the creation of this debt is a consequence of the management of Lanbide, which is often affected by Lanbide errors, and Lanbide should therefore assume: “In addition, cases are prescribed at the age of four, and if there is a Lanbide error, they prescribe in one year, but they continue to claim 2012 debts.” He added that some citizens charged with the IGR resign from that income to “not accumulate debts”.

Quintana points out that, when the resolution is favorable to the recipient person, Lanbide returns to the citizen what was overpaid in the previous months. “These are the cases that leak into the press: This person has received EUR 3,000! What is not said is that this is not the monthly amount, but the amount that had to be received in the previous four or five. And what you don't know is how that person has had to adapt to deal with all those months. Therefore, when you receive 3,000 euros, you do not have to leave on vacation, you are exhausted from the debts you have generated in your environment.”

What is to come in May?

The Basque Government
has commissioned the technical report in May to discuss the reform of the IGR Act. In January, Artolazabal announced that, among those reforms, it was analysing that the update of the GFR would be based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI). To do so, they must amend the law, as the IGR is subject to the Interprofessional Minimum Wage. As reported by EiTB in the news of January 10, Artolazabal proposed two objectives to carry out this change: “ensuring decent living conditions for people in need of basic income and prioritising the possibility of finding employment, avoiding inequalities with those already in need, because the subsidy is too high”.

Quintana points out that it is not acceptable for this change of approach to be made according to the economic data of the time: “The minimum wage has been frozen in recent years or has risen very little. So yes, it served as the basis of the IGR. Now, when it touches an increase of 8%, it is not fair to maintain the CPI that has risen by 1% instead of that reference. The purchasing power of these citizens is constantly diminishing.”

In
the CAPV, a maximum of 88% of the minimum wage for IGR is received. Molina has denounced that Patxi Lopez once reduced the number of unemployed by 7%. And that this change entails a cut of 7% more. “Will politicians also drop 14% of their salary? You also collect public money,” he asked you, in person, in Parliament. On the reform to come in May it says: “We are a currency in exchange for the PNV to approve budgets with the PP. The PP will tighten the conditions to request the RGI and the PNV will come to their theses”.

With
Artolazabal we had an interview appointment, we sent him questions, but because of an agenda problem that came up to him, we couldn't meet him personally. We thank you for answering in writing the questions we sent you for the interview. We received their answers when this report came to the press and then you can read the questions and answers:

Beatriz Artolazabal, Minister for Employment and Social Policies of the Basque Government:

Parliament will agree on the necessary changes to ensure support for people in our society in situations of poverty and exclusion.

Elkarrekin-Podemos requested in Parliament that the criteria for channelling the GI be published on the Lanbide website. When will you put them?

We are working on the revision and dissemination of the criteria applied by Lanbide and ratified by the court judgments. For the time being, we do not have a specific date for completing this process, but we hope it will be speedy.

In the Basque Parliament, Lanbide, the Basque Employment Service, listed quite a few "bad practices of Lanbide" and said that the sanctions and debts imposed by Lanbide do not correspond to reality. How does Lanbide prove each case? Does it contrast with other institutions?

Lanbide has interoperability services with other entities and channels for consultation. We crossed data with INSS, TGSS, SEPE and so on. Lanbide has worked on the development of skills and on the daily improvement of procedures with its workers, and we will not rest until the people in need of RGI are properly protected.

From Lanbide Damnificados we demand that Lanbide take on the mistakes that are his own. Do you envisage improvements in reducing these deficiencies?

We developed continuous improvements in the management procedures of the IGR. We are currently implementing a Quality Management System that will result in a continuous improvement in the management of the IGR.

You have announced improvements to the management of the IGR. Are there any plans, among them, to facilitate the work of the recipients, for example, that in the case of the data to which Lanbide has access, they do not have to submit these documents, or the possibility to access their dossier from the Internet, or to carry out any processing and request at the nearest window?

We have been studying for some time that recipients can access the dossier data from the private domain of Lanbide, providing them with the necessary information for their consultation or for other requests they wish to make.

In order to communicate with the administration, citizens still have the possibility to access the nearest window.

Since its inception, Lanbide has clearly committed itself to the establishment of interoperability systems that allow citizens to present less paper in Lanbide, which is a great advantage in gaining speed in the resolution of dossiers. But this depends not only on the will of Lanbide, but also on the involvement of the other administrations, which have to make the information available to the Autonomous Agency. In fact, for example, no registration certificate is requested in the case of all the municipalities that make it available to us.

The recipients welcome the fact that the letters they receive since the beginning of this year are argued but do not receive dossiers along with the letter. Why are they not sent?

All people have the right to request their dossier, but with each resolution we will not send them their dossier, as they are the same ones that present the documents in Lanbide. But we insist that it is granted if it does not agree with the resolution.

If RGI recipients submit documentation within 15 days and Lanbide has access to other entities, how can it be explained that Lanbide has a 3-4 year delay in updating files and that this generates debt? (Lanbide says the dossiers were imprisoned by Aburto for 2 years.)

It's not true. It is not that the dossiers have not been renewed at this time, but that the dossiers have been renewed with the relevant resolutions, but that amount has not started to be claimed, because actions for the benefit of the recipients were prioritised, that is to say, concessions, restorations or changes that increased the amount.

Once the workload to Lanbide has been incorporated, it has begun to apply for the amounts corresponding to the operations of previous years. In other words, it is not that the amounts to be regularised have now been identified, but that they have been set up at the time of processing and are being requested.

Lanbide, the Basque Employment Service, uses the word "fraud" to refer to a social benefit that generates debts of up to EUR 40,000. It says that there are irregularities in this debt: that the whole month is counted for a working day and that the prescribed cases continue to be charged. Have targets been set to reduce undue payments?

That statement is false. Lanbide has never recorded a day worked for a month. Of course, the curtailment of these undue payments is an objective of the Autonomous Agency and we are working to achieve more automated labour income data.

Where is the money that the citizens pay back for undue payments going?

To the account on behalf of the Basque Government to deal with the annual accounts.

The press has announced that the Basque Government will present in May a technical report on the reform of the IGR Act for discussion. What will be the basis for this reform? Will the conditions for requesting the IGR be tightened or simplified? Has it been a subject negotiated with the pp for the approval of the budgets?

The reform of the IGR Law is currently in the process of developing a diagnosis on the objectives of improvement. In this respect, Parliament will agree on the changes necessary to ensure protection from situations of poverty and exclusion of people in our society.

Only the parliamentary commission asks us for a diagnosis and does not conduct any negotiations with it.