Speech by President of the Government at event to inaugurate new headquarters of the Social Security Technology Management Department

Madrid

Madam Vice-President of the Government, Madam Minister for Employment and Social Security, Mr State Secretary for Social Security, ladies and gentlemen, dear friends, members of the media, a very good day to you all.

I am greatly honoured to be able to inaugurate this new headquarters of the Social Security Technology Management Department, which I am also attending with a very clear goal: to personally thank its public servants for the wonderful professionalism that characterises the management of our Social Security system, one of the most highly rated institutions by the Spanish people.

Public appreciation and the institutional prestige of the Social Security system are, to a great extent, down to you. From these offices of the Technology Management Department, you are the people who oversee the smooth running of this essential network for relations maintained by the Social Security system with our citizens, a network which is facilitated through the most advanced cutting-edge technology.

The modernisation of the Social Security system thus continues its unstoppable course in these 58,000 square metres of installations, which will become, as the minister mentioned a few minutes ago, a work centre with almost 2,000 professionals, who are a source of pride to the Spanish public administration.

This is an institution which pays out almost 9.5 million benefits on time each month, but it is easy to appreciate that its importance goes far beyond its functional dimension, given that the Social Security system has been built on values of trust, certainty and security for all those who have reached retirement age or find themselves in a situation of incapacity, invalidity, widowhood or orphanhood.

Our Social Security system undoubtedly represents the greatest solidarity network that exists in Spain, solidarity between generations, between regions and between contributors and beneficiaries. This institution is a fine example of efficient management and institutional quality of which every Spaniard can feel justifiably proud.

Ladies and gentlemen,

All of this allows us to make a reflection: we are one of the most supportive countries in the world and we have one of the most advanced Welfare States in the world. No-one can deny that these two claims are inseparable realities, because the spirit of a nation leaves its mark on its institutions.

Dear friends,

The best guarantee for the sustainability of pensions is for jobs to continue to be created in Spain and today, as the minister reminded us in her opening speech, we have seen some good news. The unemployment figures and the figures on new contributors to the Social Security system for this last month of July are record highs for a month of July. They are figures which should undoubtedly spur us on to continue working hard in the future.

Employment means a livelihood for those who have a job, but employment also guarantees pensions and the continued existence and improvement of major fundamental public services, such as healthcare, education and social services.

Almost a year ago we set the great national target of reaching 20 million Spaniards in work and contributing to the Social Security system by the year 2020. We are closer to achieving that now than we were then. The reforms undertaken in the last legislature continue to boost growth and job creation, and this is the best evidence that they were the right reforms and that they were effective in practice.

Confidence in our future remains at a record high, but Spain cannot remain with an acting government a moment longer. Our country needs a government now, with the mission of introducing new and significant stimuli to recovery and job creation, as well as to tackle all the challenges that lie before us in a serious manner. A half-baked recovery would lead us to lose everything and mean that the efforts made by the Spanish people would have been in vain.

It is time for responsibility, responsibility that demands us all to consider the good of Spain and of the Spanish people over and above other issues.

Our citizens have clearly called for a government to be formed, a government that has the support of the main pro-Constitution forces. There are many more issues that unite us than separate us. We should all have that present when we sit down to talk and negotiate.

From the respective roles we were given by our citizens on 26 June, we all have an important task to fulfil and mine is to do everything possible and what is not possible so that our country has a government now; a government that is able to fulfil our great national targets, starting with the most urgent, and make the most important of those targets a reality - namely ensuring that 20 million of our compatriots have a job by the year 2020.

Ladies and gentlemen, I will draw to a close now.

The Social Security Technology Management Department has been key in adapting the Social Security system to new technologies in a swift and secure manner, with all appropriate guarantees. This was also one of the goals of the Commission for the Reform of the Public Administration Services which, through the Social Security system, has focused its efforts on two important projects: firstly, the Direct Settlement System, which has led to a model shift in relations between the Social Security system and our businesses. Through the direct introduction of quotas, the General Treasury of the Social Security system facilitates compliance by companies with their contributions, informing them monthly of how much they must pay for their employee contributions, thereby cutting back on bureaucratic formalities.

The other great revolution revolves around the "Your Social Security" project, which represents an important step in relations between the system and our citizens. "Your Social Security" was launched in July 2014 and since then, the system has been accessed almost 3 million times, more than 700,000 certificates have been issued and more than 20 million benefit applications have been made. And the number of services that can be requested online has increased. What started as a tool to request the record of one's working life, now allows healthcare cards to be managed, to apply for and ascertain your retirement pension, and also allows for paternity and maternity benefits to be processed.

Dear friends,

Today, those of us who advocate a public pension system, which I believes means all of us, have two pieces of good news: the first is that we have crossed the halfway line in recovering jobs which means we have recovered a very significant part of the jobs shed during the crisis; and the second is the inauguration of this extraordinary building that will host, in a single headquarters, the modernisation services pushed through by the Social Security Technology Management Department.

I want to thank everyone who has made this possible, who every day give the very best of their talent to offer this public service that allows the pensions of our elderly citizens to be duly paid at the start of each month smoothly and efficiently, and with that, the ties between generations of which we are all tremendously proud are maintained. Thank you, in short, for working towards this great institution that is the Social Security system remaining the very backbone of the welfare model in Spain.

Thank you all very much.