The minimum vital income will be compatible for a time with wages to encourage job search
Madrid
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The minimum income that the government completes will be compatible for a time with a salary so that it does not discourage job search as has happened with other benefits, as stressed by the Minister of Social Security, José Luis Escrivá.
In declarations in the Cope, Escrivá has pointed out that in other programs in which there have not been these incentives to search for employment «there may be temptation to exhaust the benefit and not activate in the labor market ».
This benefit, which will complement other aid or household income up to a minimum subsistence threshold, will have these incentives so that "for a time" will be compatible with a new salary, in addition to including itineraries for inclusion in or before the labor market, for example, in cases of drug or mental problems.
For this, he stressed, he will work closely with the social services of municipalities or organizations such as Cáritas more knowledgeable about the realities of these households, about 3 million, which could receive the income that seeks to combat the problems of extreme poverty that has Spain.
Regarding the cost of the measure, Escrivá has avoided quantifying it, although it has acknowledged that it will be in the "highest range" of its forecasts and that it will be financed with taxes through the General State Budget. "It will be easily financed with public debt," he defended.
And regarding the implementation deadlines and the differences with the second vice-president of the Government, Pablo Iglesias, he stressed that the calendar to be followed is the one that "has always had Social Security in its head": take the regulations to the Council of Ministers in the second half of May for its subsequent validation and administrative deployment. And that the rent will be, also as Escrivá has defended, permanent.
He acknowledged that "calendar issues" and the way to communicate the minimum income were being discussed, that the press conference was "very difficult" due to their agenda issues and that the decision to make a statement was made by the Ministry of Social Security. "I believe that what (Iglesias) has said is consistent with what I have said," he noted.
Complement of the incomes of the regions
The minimum vital income will complement the minimum insertion income of the autonomous communities, which in 2018 represented an expense of more than 1,500 million euros. According to the latest data published by the Ministry of Health, these healthcare benefits benefited about 680,000 people with an average monthly amount per owner of 463 euros per month.
The average basic amount of the minimum insertion incomes of the autonomous communities in 2018 was 463.05 euros per month, 2.8% more than in 2017, although the total expenditure executed stood at 1,519 million euros, 1 67% less.
Regarding holders and family members who are dependent on them, in 2018 there were 679,180 recipients or beneficiaries of minimum insertion income, of which 374,883 were women and 304,297 were men. By nationality of the recipients, 74.6% were Spanish and 25.4%, of foreign nationality.
By risk groups, that of single parent family and homeless family or severe social exclusion. And in age, the majority group is the one between 35 and 44 years old, followed by the one between 45 and 54 years old.
By amounts, the largest is in the Basque Country, 644.4 euros, and the smallest in Ceuta, with 300 euros. Each community applies different references both to the amounts (IPREM, fixed amounts, variable according to the number of children) and to access them. Hence also lie the differences between beneficiaries by region, beyond the mere population element.
In its study on minimum income programs in Spain, the Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF) recalled last year that these minimum incomes "are the only non-categorical instrument that offers protection against the general risk of poverty" and pointed to the fragmentation of the system and territorial disparities. «The problems of territorial inequality and lack of coverage of the part of the last network that corresponds to the Autonomous Communities join the three great problems of the welfare benefits of the central Government, which are fragmentation, low amounts and gaps that leave certain categories of the population out of the system, "summarized AIReF.
