Popular Party's La Mancha region sitting on welfare funds

The government of Castilla-La Mancha owes money to 40,000 people who collect disability checks each month under the Dependency Law. Since June, regional authorities have not only failed to pay their share of the 22 million euros, but they have also withheld the portion that is paid out by the central government, and which is sitting in regional accounts.

On August 31, the new premier to come out of regional elections in May, Maria Dolores de Cospedal of the conservative Popular Party (PP), unveiled drastic budget cuts that she said would not affect basic social services.

De Cospedal said her administration plans to save 1.815 billion euros between this year and the next, mostly from slimming down the public sector. The premier, whose party took over from a long-running Socialist administration, said Castilla-La Mancha's deficit as of the end of June stood at 4.9 percent of GDP, much higher than the 1.3 percent target set by Madrid, and which she blamed on Socialist mismanagement.

The freeze on payments is worrying disability check recipients. On Tuesday, representatives of the Platform for the Castilla-La Mancha Dependency Law met with the regional social services chief, Carmen Balfagol, who expressed a will to make some payments soon. But members of the advocacy group fear that regional authorities are simply waiting for one more 11-million-euro transfer from the central government, which would enable them to pay out a full month using only central money, not their own. "The Junta would save face without contributing a penny," said one member.

This is not the only measure undertaken by Castilla-La Mancha to save on payouts. It has also drawn on a 2010 royal decree allowing back payments to be spaced out in five instalments, a possibility that the previous administration had not resorted to.