Spain’s cabinet approve guaranteed minimum income scheme for vulnerable families
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The Spanish Cabinet approved on Friday a guaranteed minimum income scheme set to help 850,000 vulnerable families.
It is not the first welfare program of its kind in Spain: there are already 17 different schemes in Spain run by each of the regional governments.
ElPais reports that the new scheme from the Social Security Ministry will nearly triple that figure. It will also be compatible with the regional aid, according to Social Security Ministry José Luis Escrivá.
Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Finance Minister María Jesús Montero called the guaranteed minimum income scheme “a giant step in the fight against inequality in our country.”
The program aims to lift around 1.6 million people out of extreme poverty, a group that represents 12.4% of the population, compared with the EU average of 6.9%. And 26.1% of the population is at risk of poverty, meaning that they are living on less than 60% of the median income, or €8,871 a year.
El Pais adds “Today is a historic day for our democracy,” added Deputy Prime Minister Pablo Iglesias, who is the leader of the leftist Unidas Podemos, at the press conference. “Today this government is showing that its political choice is social justice and that it takes the [Spanish] Constitution seriously.”
The plan for a guaranteed minimum income dates back to December 2019, when the Socialist Party (PSOE) and Unidas Podemos struck a governing agreement after the inconclusive results of the November general election. In this deal, the parties agreed to create “a general mechanism to guarantee earnings for families with no or low income.”
“The coronavirus crisis accelerated the plan and in April, the government released the first details of the minimum income scheme, which is set to cost the government €3 billion a year. Drafts of the welfare program have been seen by several ministries, regional governments, social organizations and even associations that work with potential recipients. These texts are not final, meaning some of the details may change when the royal decree is published in the Official State Gazette (BOE). This is what is known so far about the minimum income scheme and how it will work.”
