The CEO of SeniorsLeading and president of the Silver Economy Commission of MAD FinTech, Luis Castillo, has begun to promote the candidacy of people over 65 for the 2021 Princess of Asturias Concord Awards. The text of your proposal is reproduced below:
“It has just been published the last barometer of MayoresUDP, the association that with 44 years of trajectory, is the reference in the representation of the elderly in Spain.
The title of the report published, with data as of June of this year, is Solidaridad Intrafamiliary, which highlights that 42% of people over 65 years of age help their children, relatives or friends financially (percentage always above 40% since 2012).
Likewise, this report reveals that in more than 80% of the cases, the economic aid of people over 65 years old had their own children as beneficiaries.
Everyone knows the important family role of grandparents, not only in terms of emotional support, but also in caring for grandchildren in the case of their children who work outside the home. There are studies that quantify economically this support in the form of care for the grandchildren and the estimated figure, at a valuation of the hourly cost of the SMI, would exceed 52 Billion Euros per year, which represents more than 4% of the GDP in 2019.
However, I want to emphasize the direct financial assistance that people over 65 provide to their children and what this means in concrete terms of life support for them.
I’m not just talking about numbers, but about “translating” those numbers into social impact, because this economic support means that their children do not fall apart psychologically and can continue to face their vital difficulties, maintaining their options for overcoming them and continuing to contribute personally and socially with their contribution, as active peopleand not prostrated by the desperation of not having the minimum resources necessary to continue having options for economic recovery.
Preventing the loss of professional skills, and therefore the generation of economic and social value for their children, and not acting for the benefit of society as a whole, is ultimately dependent on their parents over sixty-five years of age.
For all these reasons we have to give these seniors over 65 the maximum recognition as anonymous heroes, especially in these times of pandemic in which thousands of them have lost their lives and in the most absolute solitude and in which we are rewarding, with accredited justice, health groups, security forces and civil protection or labor and professional groups that have gathered and continue to gather so many merits.
For all these reasons, I propose that we promote the candidacy of these elderly people for the 2021 Princess of Asturias Awards in the category of the Concord Award.
If anyone deserves such a high distinction, it is them: the four million people over 65, the real protagonists of intra-family solidarity.
