Disability: Government confirms that it is “in the process of canceling” 200,000 pensions

The executive director of the National Disability Agency (ANDIS), Diego Orlando Spagnuoloconfirmed that the organization is “in the process of reducing 200 thousand pensions”a product of the audit that has been carried out since March.

“The Agency today is focused on pensions because it is the bulk, it has a very large budgetary impact and the irregularities are very striking. We are auditing case by case: we summon all beneficiaries and they are reviewed by a medical team that tells us if they meet 66% disability or not. Apart from that, we have already done all the desk work, which is the cross-checking of data to see if they correspond or not, and from that today we are in the process of canceling 200,000 pensions,” said the official in a press conference of the who participated Scope.

The Government is determined to maintain zero deficit in all areas of the State. In that framework, The 2025 Budget letter has a 52.6% year-on-year reduction in the item “Non-Contributory Pensions for Labor Disability.”

Currently, the amount currently allocated for each pension is $250,000 and 1,250,000 pensions are provided. Since Javier Milei took office, 20 thousand have been granted and there are more than 600 thousand orders in progress.

According to the head of ANDIS, “today it is not possible to estimate how much the total savings will be because the entire list of beneficiaries must be audited,” although he assured that he will “fight so that the money saved remains in the disability area.” “. “There are requests that have not yet been answered,” he argued.

For the Government “the system as it is proposed today is unviable from every point of view.” “More and more money is paid for disability and transportation benefits, there is no effective control of benefits and the demand from providers is increasing,” he argued and provided a curious comparison: “In fact, the Superintendency of Health Services recently published a report from which it can be deduced that what is being paid for transportation of people with disabilities is equivalent to three round trips to the moon per month.”

Inheritance received

According to the data provided by Spagnuolo, under the management of Alberto Fernández, 390 thousand disability pensions were granted. “The increase was more or less 250,000, because in the middle you have casualties due to deaths,” he explained. .

The official admitted that he is receiving pressure to finish the audit: “We are taking it very calmly, it is not calmly in the sense of laziness, but rather we want to do things well. It was already done quickly and it was done badly. The bulk, which is the north of the country, we want to have by April or May. There are cities that are plagued by disabled people, this reflects, regardless of what happened in the previous administration, that there is also a problem in those who granted these pensions and the local agencies.”

“In La Rioja, Tucumán and some specific cities, pensions of one thousand, one thousand five hundred, two thousand pensions were granted, people would get together in a gym for example and the pensions were granted. In that sense, The Government filed a complaint against Alberto Fernández and the former director of ANDIS, Fernando Galarraga that prosecutor Gerardo Policita is processing. This week the prosecutor’s office requested a report to accompany the case that is pending.

In turn, Spagnuolo assures that when he arrived at management he found “an overcrowded agency.” “Staff was reduced by approximately 30% and not only did the operation not suffer but an agency was launched that did not work,” he explained.

They arrested 14 fugitives who were receiving a disability pension

The Government highlighted this Friday that, in an operation designed by the National Disability Agency, in conjunction with the Ministries of Security and Justice, “it was possible to capture 14 fugitive criminals who were irregularly collecting a non-contributory pension for work disability.” .

“During the last period of Alberto Fernández, the requirements were greatly softened, basically three remained: you have to be Argentine, if you are a foreigner, have a residence of 10 years and not be in a situation of conflict with justice; that is, they left three requirements and they did not comply with them,” Sapagnuolo remarked.