Kirsty Mckenzie
UNEMPLOYED people in Spain will no longer have to wait a year to access benefits.
On Monday (October 18) the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration revealed a series of improvements in the Minimum Living Income that they hoped would no longer leave people without work in ‘no man’s land’.
It is a welcome change from the current situation in Spain where currently workers who suffered a serious loss of income must wait until the following year to apply for the IMV.
Additionally, the Ministry of Social Rights and Agenda 2030 agree to take into account the earnings from the previous months of employment so that people will be afforded the maximum amount of the benefit.
“Now we will be able to take into account the recent income of the person to request the Minimum Vital Income so that if a person has suffered an unexpected situation and a drop in income, they do not have to wait until the following year to apply for the IMV, ” said Minister of Social Rights, Ione Belarra. “This is to ensure that there are no people who remain in no man’s land.”
The Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration Jose Luis Escriva also confirmed the already announced supplement of up to €100 euros per dependent child for low-income families will go ahead. He added that they expect to double the number of current beneficiaries, which currently stands at around 350,000 households.
Both ministries also confirmed that the IMV benefit will increase by 22% for families with a disabled member and that the aid will not be considered income and therefore not impact their benefits.
Meanwhile, young people will no longer have to prove they have been supporting themselves for 12 months prior to being out of work and the independent living requirement is set to be reduced from three to two years.
Similarly, people who used up all their unemployment benefits and who were, until now, essentially unprotected, will no longer see their payment reduced.
When will these changes take effect?
All these modifications will be effective from the moment the IMV bill is approved in Parliament and both ministries hope that it will be before the end of this year as they intend to achieve ‘very broad’ support from Congress.
Register of mediators
Minister Escriva has also announced that the approval of a registry of mediators is ‘imminent’ and NGOs will be able to prove the vulnerability of a person or family in difficult circumstances.
In addition, the Minister of Inclusion has detailed that they will make a proactive effort to contact all households in the coming months that, according to the Ministry’s data, should have requested the IMV but have not done so.
Budget allocation
Escriva said that they will receive €3,000 million from the budget to support low-income families and those without work.
He said: “This benefit is significantly more generous than the current low-income family benefits, and therefore, the logical thing is that they transition from one benefit to another.”
In order to deal with the expected surge in the number of people applying for Minimum Vital Income, which has already surpassed €1.5million, Escriva confirmed that Social Security will add an additional 160,000 people to their workforce over the next three years.
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