How the Milei government took unaudited disabled people’s benefits away

Gladys is disabled. She is 45 years old. She lost her left leg in an accident at age 17. Earlier this month, her disability benefits were suddenly cut. “I’ve been on benefits since 1998. This month I went to collect and they hadn’t transferred anything to me. I went to the ANSES [social security agency] and they told me they had removed my benefits because I hadn’t shown up at the place where I was summoned, but I hadn’t been summoned at all, anywhere,” she explained in an interview. “The following day a letter arrived at my home informing me that my benefits were being removed because I hadn’t shown up.”

As of June, according to data from the ANDIS national disability agency issued in response to a public information request filed by the ACIJ civil association for equality and justice (ACIJ), 834,157 officially registered letters were sent out to disabled people in Argentina this year for the purpose of audits. But, for a variety of different reasons, 385,993 – as many as 46.3 percent of those sent – were unable to be delivered. 

Nevertheless, on August 8 at a press conference, Presidential Spokesperson Manuel Adorni announced to the nation’s media that 110,000 people had benefits removed in response to the “audits.”

“We have to assess these figures in the context not only of what is going on with the audit process, where irregularities were found, but also the modification of the regulatory framework,” reads a document being prepared and shared by ACIJ. 

The suspension of benefits – such as those previously received by Gladys – results from two factors: the registered letters were delivered to places which are not the individuals’ legal domiciles (even to healthcare institutions, for example) or the beneficiary do not meet minimum accessibility conditional. But there is also another reason for suspension: new regulations authorise removal for benefits for those who didn’t show up to their assessment meeting – even though nearly half of recipients have not received the letter. 

NGOs and civil society groups are warning of the potential impact – several organisations have requested a pause in ANDIS suspensions until the problems are remedied. “They are suspending benefits en masse,” cautions Belén Arcucci, coordinator of the ACIJ’s programme for the rights of disabled people.

Decree 843/24, issued by President Javier Milei, “once again installed requirements which were already declared unconstitutional by courts, such as attesting to a given percentage of ‘decrease of labour capacity’ or not having relatives forced to pay support,” warned the ACIJ in a recent report.

The main irregularity highlighted is that the audit process is not regulated: there is no official document clearly defining stages, methodology or terms. In addition, there is no alternative for those who may not attend hearings in person – many were summoned to appointments far away from their homes.

“Some people have had to travel to far away places and they’re asked for tests which do not reveal much,” Pablo Molero, coordinator of the Permanent Forum for the Promotion and Defence of the Rights of Disabled People NGO, said to Perfil in an interview. As for the number of suspensions issued, he claimed, “every so often, the government issues a [press] release, but the information is very vague.”

After filing a complaint, Gladys was asked to submit extra documentation attesting to her disability. Yet again, as though something had changed. “I had to go to the hospital to see an orthopaedic surgeon – he gave me everything I needed,” she explains. While awaiting the reinstatement of her benefits, she has had no income. “I live on benefits. I walk on crutches, because my prosthetic [leg] broke. I live with my 12-year-old son who goes to school and my 71-year-old mum who gets a minimum pension,” she said.

The ACIJ added that “even though information is circulating on how to reinstate benefits, here at organisations we’re receiving reports from people who send the documentation, but still get no answer. And, even if it is eventually resolved, to reinstate the benefits, people will not collect for the months when [payments] were suspended.”

Among the arguments repeated constantly by President Javier Milei’s government – to justify the “chainsaw” approach to disability benefits – is the growth in the number of disabled recipients.

According to the latest data from the population census, 12.9 percent of Argentines have a disability, which would mean some five million people. Out of that total, only 20 percent had access to benefits, according to estimates.

Two main matters explain the increase in the number of benefits in Argentina, explains officials at the ACIJ. The main thing is that as far back as 2003 there was a system of “approval due to removal” – that is, until then the number of disability benefits was steady, because only when a benefit was removed a new one was granted: the mechanism left out thousands of people who met the other requirements to access this income and needed it.

On the other hand, the country had to adapt to the demands of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), ratified in 2008. That international instrument obliges the state to ensure access to food, residence and clothes to people with disabilities, rights they are hardly guaranteed via other means. More than 75 percent of disabled people are unemployed or hold precarious jobs, not due to labour incapacity but due to lack of accessibility.

Disability benefits have also lost 10 points in value compared to inflation. Including bonus payments, the welfare payment rose from 227,000 pesos to 286,000 pesos between August 2024 and the same month in 2025 – or a 25.9-percent increase as against a 36.6-percent price increase in consumer prices.

Figures

• 12.9 – The percentage of Argentines with some form of disability.

• 110,000 – The number of benefits suspended to date by the Milei government

• 853,157 – Registered letters sent out by auditors

• 385,993 – The number of letters that were not successfully delivered.

• 46.3 – The percentage of the nearly 366,000 communications which did not make it. ​