POVERTY WATCH SPAIN 2022, EAPN SPAIN
Graciela Malgesini2022, POVERTY WATCH SPAIN 2022
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Spanish society has made unprecedented social progress in recent decades. People are healthier, better educated, and more connected than ever before. However, this progress is uneven and high rates of poverty persist. Economic and social inequality are chronic. Across Autonomous Communities and Cities, many individuals and groups face barriers that prevent them from participating fully in economic, social, and political life due to their disadvantaged situation. In this context, inclusion and shared prosperity emerged as central aspirations of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. A central commitment contained in the 2030 Agenda is to ensure that no one is left behind and to see that all goals and targets are met for all sectors of society, striving to reach the worst-off first. However, the Covid-19 pandemic widened the social and economic gap in Spain. Data from the Survey of Living Conditions published by the National Statistics Institute (INE) in June 2022 show an increase of both poverty and inequality. In 2021, the Spanish population at risk of poverty or social exclusion increased to 27.8%, eight-tenths more than in 2020. In this sense, it is the worst figure since 2016. In 2022, the at-risk-of-poverty threshold for one-person households - calculated using 2021 income data - stood at €9,535, 0.9% lower than estimated in the previous year. For households comprising two adults and two children under 14 years of age, this threshold was 20,024 euros. Regarding the average income per person, referring to 2021, it reached 12,269 euros, 0.2% less than the previous year. The Survey confirms that there is a before and after the pandemic and that just over one million people have fallen into poverty in the last two years. In 2019, 25.3% of the population was at risk of poverty; now it is 27.8%. According to the S80/S20 ratio which measures income inequality by comparing the sum of the incomes of the 20% of the population with the 20% of the population with the lowest income, its value reached 6.2 in 2021, an increase of four-tenths of a percentage point from the previous year. Another indicator to analyze inequality is the Gini Index. It is a measure of inequality that takes the value zero in the case of perfect equality and 100 in the case of maximum inequality; the Gini index rose by nine-tenths in 2021 to 33.0. ‘Leaving no one behind’ is not only a fundamental moral imperative; poverty and social exclusion also have significant economic and social costs associated with forgoing the contribution of individuals and groups who cannot access education systems, economic production, or the labor market. Poverty and exclusion also have political costs, as they reflect and fuel social tensions and are at the root of many conflicts. They also interact with environmental risks: excluded individuals and groups, especially those living in poverty, often inhabit areas that are more vulnerable to natural hazards and disasters and, as a result, are disproportionately harmed by those. Poverty and exclusion make societies not only less cohesive, but also more fragile, less secure, and less productive. SPANISH VERSION AT THIS LINK: https://www.eapn.es/ARCHIVO/documentos/documentos/1672315859_eapn-poverty-watch.pdf
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Concerning the aftermath of Covid-19, despite the great improvement of massive vaccination, the pandemic still poses an extraordinary challenge to public health. Preparation for future epidemic shocks must be guaranteed, with better conditions to protect the population in a diversity of situations. It is essential to ensure universal and free access to medical care and public health resources. Regarding Income Protection, 1) The need to continue promoting and defining measures such as the 'Ingreso Mínimo Vital' (Minimum Income), placing the benefit above the poverty threshold, as well as its coverage so that it reaches all the people who need it. It should improve in terms of accessibility, coverage, adequacy and enabling capacity. 2) Minimum Wages are key for ensuring fair working conditions and decent living standards for all workers in the EU. They are essential to protect low-wage workers and to prevent in-work poverty. 3) The pension system should provide an adequate standard of living. 4) Income guarantee policies should contemplate corrective actions for gender inequality. 5) The authorities, social actors and civil society organizations must put an end to the expansion of discrimination, which is spread to other sociodemographic characteristics, such as age, nationality, ethnic origin, disability, family situation, sexual orientation, rurality, among other factors, as it is provoking increasing inequalities in the labour market, in household income and in access to opportunities.
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The decade 2008-2018 is a great loss for social progress. To meet the Europe 2020 Strategy’s national target, the number of people at risk of poverty and / or social exclusion should be reduced by 2.3 million in the next year. If we do not move in the right direction, Spain will also fail to comply with the principles of the EU Social Rights Pillar and with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The report describes the average situation for Spain, with a reference to the territorial disparities which are reflected in all AROPE and inequality indicators. It also provides information about health, wellbeing and education. Policy changes that may affect poverty are explained in relation to the recently approved National Strategies against Poverty and against Energy Poverty. It concludes with recommendations made by people experiencing poverty.
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EAPN is a network dedicated to the fight against poverty. Our aim is to work together to achieve a reduction of poverty, through improvements in antipoverty policy and practice at national and EU level. Monitoring trends on poverty is part of this process, holding governments to account, as well as raising awareness to the general public about the realities on the ground in order to build pressure for change. Currently, EAPN is engaging in the European Semester, in order to try to get delivery on the poverty reduction, employment and education targets of Europe 2020 through dialogue processes. This involves monitoring policy proposals from the European Commission and Member States, and trying to influence the policy recommendations by drawing attention to trends and realities on the ground. This has been an important part of our Work Programme to the Commission in this period, and for our funding. However, members have increasingly raised concerns about the amount of work required for this engagement/monitoring process, and policy impact, particularly in countries with a weak commitment to meaningful stakeholder involvement. The proposal gives priority to members’ own assessment of what is happening to poverty in their country, which can serve as an awareness-raising and advocacy instrument at national level, as well as form the basis of effective inputs to the EU level, particularly to the European Semester/Europe 2020 process. This EAPN Poverty Watch report is a compilation of key data on Poverty, Vulnerability and Exclusion in Spain. Objectives: 1) To monitor key trends and policy on poverty and social exclusion in Europe. 2) To raise awareness about priority issues and impact/reality for people experiencing poverty 3) To propose concrete recommendations backed by example and evidence. Target audience: 1) Stakeholders and general public at national level. 2) National and EU decision-makers
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The great rise in poverty and inequality in Spain Over the last few years, Spain has suffered a sharp increase in poverty and inequality. The percentage of the population at risk of poverty or social exclusion has risen from 23.3% in 2007 to 28.6% in 2015, more than 5 points above the average of the European Union (EU) (EUROSTAT, 2016a). Inequality has shot up in the country: Spain has become the country with the third highest level of inequality in the EU (as measured by the ratio between the income of the first and the last quintiles), after experiencing the second largest increase in the whole of the EU since 2007. The rise in poverty and inequality in Spain is a result of the dramatic impact of the economic crisis on the most vulnerable segments of the population. Does it also constitute a turning point towards a model of society characterised by higher levels of inequality and social exclusion? This chapter analyses how Spain reached this situation, describing the dramatic economic and social changes experienced by the Spanish population as a result of the crisis and the policies applied. To put this into context, it first explains the political and economic evolution of Spain and the development of its welfare state over the last few decades. Then, it describes the collapse of the Spanish economy after the outbreak of the crisis, and its consequences for the most vulnerable groups. After that, the chapter describes the austerity policies applied, involving deep cuts in social programs and a deterioration in working conditions. Next, it analyses the situation and evolution of poverty and inequality in Spain, considering how they affect the different social groups. Also, the territorial impact of poverty and inequality is analysed, considering differences between regions and between urban and rural areas. This chapter paints a precise picture of the economic and social impact of the crisis on the Spanish population. But also, due to the international significance of the Spanish case, it also aims to provide insights that go beyond it, contributing to the understanding of some of the global structural changes that are leading to increasing levels of inequality (Piketty, 2014).
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Following the global economic and fi nancial crisis of 2009-2012, the issue of poverty has returned to the attention of public policy makers at international, European and national level. To combat the eff ects of the economic crisis, the European Union has launched the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable, inclusive growth. One of the objectives of this strategy was to reduce by 20 million the number of people threatened by poverty or social exclusion. Many EU member states have made signifi cant progress in combating the poverty and social exclusion refl ected in offi cial statistics, while other countries have stagnated even though the macroeconomic situation has improved until the onset of the pandemic crisis. This study proposes the analysis of poverty at EU-28 level, using a set of relevant socioeconomic indicators (relative poverty rate, income inequality index, relative median defi cit, GINI coeffi cient, AROPE indicator, in-work poverty rate) provided by Eurostat and national institutes of statistics. Descriptive, geospatial (grouping analysis) and multivariate (Principal Components Analyses) statistical analyses were applied to highlight the typologies of poverty within the EU. The study also looks at whether the income inequality index and the GINI coeffi cient infl uence the relative poverty rate in EU member states. The typology of poverty at EU-28 level will be represented by visualization techniques (graphs and maps) to highlight the characteristics of countries that have made progress versus regress in combating poverty. This study is also important from the perspective of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which proposes the fi ght against poverty
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An income concentration measurement. This index considers values from 0 to 1; the higher it is (near 1), there more inequality there is regarding income distribution. Incidence: The percentage of the population, or from a specific population group, that exhibits some sort of economic or social deprivation. Social networks perception index: It is defined as the degree of perception of easiness or difficulty that people aged 12 years old or more bear regarding to obtaining help of social networks in diverse hypothetical situations. Social Deprivation Index: It is defined from the sum of the six indicators associated with social deprivations, that is, the number of deprivations a person has (educational gap, access to health services, access to social security, quality and spaces of the dwelling, access to basic services in the dwelling, and access to food). Wellbeing line: Monetary value of a food, goods, and basic services basket. Minimum wellbeing line: Monetary value of the food basket. Population living in poverty: Population whose income is below the wellbeing line and that endures at least one social deprivation. Population living in extreme poverty: Population that endures three or more social deprivations and whose income is below the minimum wellbeing line. Population living in moderate poverty: Population whose income is above or equal to the minimum wellbeing line, but below the wellbeing line and that endures at least one social deprivation; or the population whose income is below the minimum wellbeing line and that endures one or two social deprivations. Non multidimensional poor and non vulnerable population: Population with no social deprivations and whose income is above or equal to the wellbeing line. Vulnerable population due to social deprivations: Population with one or more social deprivations and whose income is above or equal to the wellbeing line. Vulnerable population due to income: Population with no social deprivations and whose income is below the wellbeing line. Income ratio: It is defined as the proportion of the average total per capita current income of the population living in extreme poverty in relation to the average total per capita current income of the non multidimensional poor and non vulnerable population. Rural areas: Localities with less than 2,500 inhabitants.
TIPs for poverty analysis: The case of Spain, 1980-1981 to 1990-1991
In this paper, we apply the methodology developed by to the study of the evolution ofpoverty in Spain during the 1980's. The main advantage of this approach lies in the fact that it provides poverty orderings consitent with a wide subset of generalized poverty gap poverty indices, while allowing different poverty lines for each of the distributions being compared. Our contnbution focuses on two aspects. (i) We estimate poverty trends for homogeneous subgroups of households of the same size. For the heterogeneous population as a whole, we study the robustness of our results to the choice of the equivalence scale. (ii) We extend to our procedures of statistical inference which are already used in the inequality literature. The main conclusion is the unambrigous fall in poverty levels, both in the population as a whole as well as in all subgroups in the partition by household siz.e.
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During the last three decades Spain has undergone a major political and socioeconomic transformation. At the beginning of the 1970s the country was still under Franco's dictatorial regime; today Spain has a well-consolidated democracy and is part of the European Community. Over the same period, indicators such as average welfare levels as measured by real disposable per capita income or expenditure on social protection have shown a significant net rise; this growth has occurred in parallel with both an increasing flexibility in the labour market and a dramatic jump in unemployment. In contrast with many other European countries in which relative poverty has been tending to expand in recent decades, poverty in Spain has been slightly reduced.
POVERTY WATCH
2022
AUTHOR: GRACIELA MALGESINI REY
1
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
EAPN SPAIN
Red Europea de Lucha contra la Pobreza en el Estado Español
C / Tribulete, 18 Local, 28012 Madrid
+34 91 786 04 11 - [email protected]
www.eapn.es
Title:
POVERTY WATCH SPAIN 2022
Author:
Graciela Malgesini Rey
Independent Consultant
Edition:
European Anti-Poverty Network, EAPN SPAIN
September 2022
The total or partial reproduction of this document is allowed as long as
the sources are cited, respecting the content as it is edited without any
misrepresentation or change.
2
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
SUMMARY ..........................................................................................................................5
1.
INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................6
2.
WHAT DO WE MEAN BY POVERTY? ...............................................................................6
3.
KEY DATA ON POVERTY FROM EU SURVEY OF LIVING CONDITIONS (SILC) ......................7
3.1. AROPE – AT RISK OF POVERTY AND/OR EXCLUSION ..............................................................9
3.1.1. SEX ..................................................................................................................................... 9
3.1.2. AGE .................................................................................................................................. 11
3.1.3. NATIONALITY ...................................................................................................................... 12
3.1.4. EDUCATION ........................................................................................................................ 12
3.1.5. OCCUPATION...................................................................................................................... 13
3.1.6. HOUSEHOLD TYPE................................................................................................................ 13
3.2. GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION ............................................................................................ 14
3.2.1. AROPE BY AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITIES AND CITIES .............................................................. 14
3.2.2. AT RISK OF POVERTY............................................................................................................ 15
3.2.3. SEVERE MATERIAL DEPRIVATION ........................................................................................... 17
3.2.4. LIVING IN HOUSEHOLDS WITH LOW WORK INTENSITY (FROM 0 TO 59 YEARS OLD) .......................... 21
4.
4.1.
4.2.
4.3.
4.4.
4.5.
4.6.
5.
WHAT IS HAPPENING TO POVERTY? WHAT ARE THE GROUPS MOST AFFECTED? ..........23
WEALTH CONCENTRATION AND INEQUALITY KEEP INCREASING.................................................23
PEOPLE IN POVERTY ......................................................................................................24
ANTI-POVERTY STRATEGY............................................................................................... 25
CHILD GUARANTEE PLAN ............................................................................................... 25
LAW ON THE RIGHT TO HOUSING ..................................................................................... 26
NATIONAL STRATEGY AGAINST ENERGY POVERTY.................................................................29
LABOUR MARKET REFORM.......................................................................................... 32
5.1. A LONG-STANDING DEMAND ........................................................................................... 32
5.2. WOMEN ARE STILL BEHIND ............................................................................................. 34
5.2.1. ACTIVITY GAP ..................................................................................................................... 34
5.2.2. EMPLOYMENT GAP .............................................................................................................. 36
5.2.3. UNEMPLOYMENT GAP .......................................................................................................... 36
3
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
6.
PEOPLE ON BENEFITS: KEY CHALLENGES AND PRIORITIES .............................................38
6.1.
6.2.
6.2.1.
6.2.2.
6.3.
6.3.1.
6.3.2.
6.3.3.
6.3.4.
6.3.5.
6.3.6.
6.3.7.
6.4.
6.4.1.
6.4.2.
6.4.3.
6.5.
6.6.
6.6.1.
6.7.
6.7.1.
6.7.2.
6.7.3.
6.7.4.
6.8.
MINIMUM INCOME: ‘INGRESO MÍNIMO VITAL’ A YEAR AFTER.................................................38
CHALLENGES FACED BY THE THE ‘INGRESO MÍNIMO VITAL’ ..................................................... 39
SLOW PACE OF PROCESSING OF APPLICATIONS AND DIFFICULTIES IN THE PROCESS OF RECTIFICATION . 40
LACK OF INFORMATION AND TRANSPARENCY ........................................................................... 42
COVERAGE .................................................................................................................42
ACCESSIBILITY OBSTACLES AND NON-TAKE-UP .......................................................................... 42
DIGITAL DIVIDE ................................................................................................................... 43
LACK OF INTERNET ACCESS .................................................................................................... 44
LACK OF SUPPORT NETWORKS ............................................................................................... 45
DIFFICULTIES WITH THE REQUIRED DOCUMENTATION ................................................................ 46
LACK OF UNDERSTANDING OF INSTRUCTIONS AND PROCEDURES .................................................. 47
OTHER DISINCENTIVES TO APPLY ............................................................................................ 47
PROFILES OF PEOPLE IN EXTREME POVERTY WHO DO NOT ACCESS THE IMV ................................ 47
ROMA POPULATION ............................................................................................................. 48
HOMELESS POPULATION ....................................................................................................... 49
YOUNG PEOPLE UNDER 23 YEAR-OLD ..................................................................................... 49
IMV RECIPIENTS AND TERRITORIAL DISTRIBUTION ................................................................ 50
ADEQUACY OF IMV AMOUNTS IN POVERTY REDUCTION......................................................... 51
SUPPLEMENTARY CHILD ALLOWANCE ...................................................................................... 53
TESTIMONIES OF IMV RECIPIENTS .................................................................................... 55
BUREAUCRATIC LABYRINTH ................................................................................................... 56
PROTECTION PROVIDED BY THE IMV ...................................................................................... 57
LABOUR AND SOCIAL INTEGRATION PATHWAYS ......................................................................... 58
EAPN RECOMMENDATIONS .................................................................................................. 59
RECOMMENDATIONS REGARDING THE IMV ........................................................................60
4
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
SUMMARY
Spanish society has made unprecedented social progress in recent decades.
People are healthier, better educated and more connected than ever before.
However, this progress is uneven and high rates of poverty persist. Economic
and social inequality are chronic. Across the Autonomous Communities and
Cities, many individuals and groups face barriers that prevent them from
participating fully in economic, social, and political life due to their disadvantaged
situation.
In this context, inclusion and shared prosperity emerged as central aspirations
of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. A central commitment
contained in the 2030 Agenda is to ensure that no one is left behind and to see
that all goals and targets are met for all sectors of society, striving to reach the
worst-off first.
However, the Covid-19 pandemic widened the social and economic gap in Spain.
Data from the Survey of Living Conditions published by the National Statistics
Institute (INE) in June 2022 show an increase of both poverty and inequality. In
2021, the Spanish population at risk of poverty or social exclusion increased to
27.8%, eight tenths more than in 2020. In this sense, it is the worst figure since
2016.
In 2022, the at-risk-of-poverty threshold for one-person households - calculated
using 2021 income data - stood at €9,535, 0.9% lower than estimated in the
previous year. For households comprising two adults and two children under 14
years of age, this threshold was 20,024 euros. Regarding the average income
per person, referring to 2021, it reached 12,269 euros, 0.2% less than the
previous year.
The Survey confirms that there is a before and after the pandemic and that just
over one million people have fallen into poverty in the last two years. In 2019,
25.3% of the population was at risk of poverty; now it is 27.8%.
According to the S80/S20 ratio which measures income inequality by comparing
the sum of the incomes of the 20% of the population with the 20% of the
population with the lowest income, its value reached 6.2 in 2021, an increase of
four tenths of a percentage point from the previous year.
Another indicator to analyse inequality is the Gini Index. It is a measure of
inequality that takes the value zero in the case of perfect equality and 100 in the
case of maximum inequality; the Gini index rose by nine tenths in 2021 to 33.0.
‘Leaving no one behind’ is not only a fundamental moral imperative; poverty and
social exclusion also have significant economic and social costs associated with
5
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
forgoing the contribution of individuals and groups who cannot access education
systems, economic production, or the labour market. Poverty and exclusion also
have political costs, as they reflect and fuel social tensions and are at the root of
many conflicts. They also interact with environmental risks: excluded individuals
and groups, especially those living in poverty, often inhabit areas that are more
vulnerable to natural hazards and disasters and, as a result, are
disproportionately harmed by those. Poverty and exclusion make societies not
only less cohesive, but also more fragile, less secure, and less productive.
1. Introduction
EAPN is a network dedicated to the fight against poverty. Our aim is to work
together to achieve a reduction of poverty, through an effective integrated
antipoverty strategy based on participation, at national and EU level. Monitoring
trends on poverty is part of this process, holding governments to account, and
raising awareness to the general public.
The proposal of the National Poverty Watch Reports is to give priority to
members’ own assessment of what is happening to poverty in their country,
drawing on the lived experience/voice of people experiencing poverty.
This Report Objectives are:
a. To monitor key trends and policy on poverty and social exclusion in Spain.
b. To raise awareness about priority issues and impact/reality for people
experiencing poverty
c. To propose concrete recommendations backed by experience and evidence.
This Report is directed to:
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
National and EU decision-makers
United Nations representatives
National stakeholders
Research Centres
Activists
General public
This 2022 Poverty Watch aims to combine an assessment of overall situation
and trends on poverty, focusing on the situation of people on benefits,
and make proposals for the future.
2. What do we mean by poverty?
In Spain, the different manifestations of poverty and social exclusion are a
shortage of income, lack of decent housing, material deprivation, more difficult
6
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
educational and healthcare paths due to hardships, poverty of families living in
disadvantaged environments, and limited or truncated access to basic services.
The Poverty Watch 2022 describes the key characteristics of poverty and
social exclusion in Spain, including the ongoing impact of the COVID-19
pandemic and the war in Ukraine, focuses on the situation of people on
benefits and presents recommendations for the eradication of poverty and
social exclusion.
On March 3rd, 2010, the European Union presented the Commission
Communication entitled "Europe 2020, a strategy for smart, sustainable and
inclusive growth", with common headline targets for economic and social
development. To meet these targets, Member States made specific
commitments and generated reform programs to achieve them. Within these
commitments, for the period 2009-2020, the Spanish government adopted the
objective of "reducing between 1,400,000 and 1,500,000 the number of people
at risk of poverty and social exclusion, according to an aggregate indicator that
includes people who live below the poverty line (relative poverty); people who
suffer severe material deprivation, and people who live in homes with low or no
employment intensity. The reduction of child poverty would be carried out in a
proportion similar to the reduction of poverty in general ".1 This main objective
was never achieved.
The Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan became the new framework for tackling
poverty and social exclusion, although the new poverty reduction targets do not
seem to be either binding or even "visible" in Spain. However, during the
pandemic and recovery, the Government launched new legislation to cover
different EPSR principles, which is a step in the good direction. One of them,
number 14, refers to the right to a Minimum Income, which is addressed in this
Report.
3. Key data on poverty from EU Survey of Living
Conditions (SILC)
1
Programa Nacional de Reformas de España 2011. Madrid: Ministerio de sanidad, servicios sociales e
igualdad. EUROSTAT set up the AROPE (At Risk of Poverty and / or Exclusion) indicator, including and
combining the three abovementioned sub-indicators, as well as a standardized methodology for its annual
calculation in each of the EU countries.
7
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
In 2022, more than 13,091,454 million people live at risk of poverty and
social exclusion (27,6% of the population) 2, 571,100 households did not
have any income 3 and there are 703,200 households whose reference
person is unemployed and has no income.4 The rates of inequality,
unemployment, precarious or atypical employment, risk of poverty and / or
exclusion, gender inequality, educational and housing deficits are all above the
European averages. Poverty is territorialized (geographically concentrated in
southern Autonomous Communities and Cities: Extremadura, Andalusia, the
Canary Islands, Murcia, Ceuta, and Castilla La-Mancha). Poverty is chronic (it is
persistent over time and not flexible with respect to the recovery of the economic
cycle). It affects more women than men (28.3% of women and 27% of men are
in AROPE in 2022).5 It is increasingly ‘ethnicized’ (although it affects mostly the
Spanish population, it affects 66.1% of non-EU population, while Spaniards’ rate
is 23,4%6; it is also very high among the Roma community7). It is concentrated
in children and young population (32.5% of children are in AROPE; 33.5% of
young people aged 16 to 29; the elderly has the lowest rate, 19.8%)8 and
overcharges families with children (having children is "a risk factor for poverty"),
particularly single-parent households (there are 1,944,800 single parent
households -10.37% of the total; 81.35% are headed by women; 54.6% of
single-parent households are at risk of poverty and/or exclusion).9
2
Spanish population in 2022: 47.432.805
https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=31304.
https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=10005
Source: National
AROPE:
Statistics Institute,
27.6%
INE,
INE,
3
National
Statistics
Institute,
INE,
https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=4183
second
term,
2022,
available
at
4
second
term,
2022,
available
at
National
Statistics
Institute,
INE,
https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=4184
5
National Statistics Institute, INE, Survey
https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=10005
of
Living
Conditions,
2022,
available
at:
National Statistics Institute, INE, Survey
https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=10009
of
Living
Conditions,
2022,
available
at:
6
7
De la Rica, Sara; Gorjón, Lucía; Miller, Luis and Úbeda, Paloma (2018), Estudio comparado sobre la
situación de la población gitana en España en relación al empleo y la pobreza (Comparative study on the
situation of the Roma population in Spain in relation to employment and poverty). ISEAK, Fundación
Secretariado Gitano, available at: https://iseak.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Estudio-comparadosobre-la-situaci%C3%B3n-de-la-poblaci%C3%B3n-gitana-en-Espa%C3%B1a-en-relaci%C3%B3n-alempleo-y-la-pobreza_presentacion.pdf
8
National Statistics Institute, INE, Survey
https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=10005
of
Living
Conditions,
2022,
available
at:
9
of
Living
Conditions,
2022,
available
at:
National Statistics Institute, INE, Survey
https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=10010
8
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
Given that income from work constitutes the main source of financing for most
households, not having a job leads to a situation of insufficient income that
prevents the acquisition of the basic products and services necessary to maintain
a decent life. In the fourth quarter of 2017, the unemployment rate was 16.55%,
14.45% in 2018, 13.78% in 2019, 16.13% in 2020, 13.33% in 2021 and 12.48%
in 2022.10
The consequences of living without income or with low income extend to the
entire family unit, affecting children and adolescents in the home. Although
employment is a decisive element in the process of social integration, having a
job is not a sufficient condition to guarantee the absence of poverty and social
exclusion, due to the precariousness or job instability that affects 16% of the
employed population.
The data from the Living Conditions Survey show a worsening of financial
insecurity associated with the increase in poverty and social exclusion. Economic
poverty is manifested in the high rate of households that do not have the capacity
to face unforeseen expenses, which was 37.3% in 2017 and lays at 33.6% in
202211, and the percentage of households that reach the end of the month with
some type of difficulty, 52% in 2017 and 43.7% in 2022.12 The rate of households
that have been late in paying expenses related to the main home (mortgage or
rent, gas bills, community...) in the last 12 months has gone from 7.4% in 2017
to 11% in 2021.13
In the following chapter, we will go through the key data related to the Survey
of Living Conditions published in 2022 analysing the changes that are exposed
by the most recent data.
3.1. AROPE – At risk of Poverty and/or Exclusion
3.1.1.
Sex
10
National Statistics Institute, INE, Active Population Survey, Historical Series, available at
https://www.ine.es/prensa/epa_tabla.htm Data for 2022 corresponds to the second term of the year.
11
National
Statistics
Institute,
INE,
Survey
https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Tabla.htm?t=9974&L=0
National
Statistics
Institute,
INE,
https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=9992
12
13
National
Statistics
Institute,
INE,
https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=9974
Survey
Survey
of
of
of
Living
Conditions,
Living
Conditions,
Living
Conditions,
available
available
available
at
at:
at
9
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
Not only did the AROPE rate grew from the last year, 2021. The data -once againshow a feminization of poverty and social exclusion: 28.7% of women and 27%
of men, that is a difference of 1.7 percentage points against females.
‘At Risk of Poverty’ is the main indicator of the AROPE indicator, with a 21% of
the population affected; the rate for women is 21.7%, while that of men is 20%.
The rate for women is.14
The indicator of ‘low work intensity’ reaches 9.9% of the population, a slight
descent from 2020 when it was at 10.8%. This can be attributed to the extensive
measures taken by the Government to protect jobs during 2020. Breaking the
data by sex, it is 10.1% for women, while it is 10% for men.
Thirdly, 7% of the population suffers from “severe material deprivation”, a
significant raise from the 4.7% of 2020. Again, the indicator raises to 7% for
women and 6.9% for men.
Table 1. Components of the AROPE indicator, by sex
Men
Women
Difference
between women
and male in pp
2021
2020
1.3
1.6
1.1
1.5
Year
AROPE
At Risk of Poverty
(income in the year
prior
to
the
interview)
Severe
Material
Deprivation
2021
28.3
22.2
2020
27.2
21.7
2021
27.0
21.1
2020
25.6
20.2
7.4
7
7.2
6.9
0.2
0.1
Living in homes
with
low
work
intensity (from 0 to
59 years old)
12.1
10.1
11.3
9.7
0.8
0.4
Source:
INE,
Encuesta
de
condiciones
https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=10005
de
vida,
2021.
14
The poverty threshold is the monetary amount that defines whether a person is considered poor or not
based on the net income received. It is calculated annually as a percentage of the national median income
per consumption unit. Depending on the degree of poverty to be measured, one percentage or another is
applied. The two most used thresholds are the one corresponding to 60% of the median, by which the risk
of poverty is defined, and the one corresponding to 40% of the median, which defines the limit of what is
considered severe poverty. The study of thresholds is important because annual changes in median income
produce changes in the threshold. In other words, what is considered poverty varies every year depending
on the median income of the total population. If the median income increases, then the poverty line grows,
and the opposite happens in case of reduction.
10
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
3.1.2.
Age
32.5% of children are in AROPE (31.7% in 2021), an increase of 1.3 percentage
points. The proportion of people in AROPE is also high among young people, at
33.5% (30.3% in 2021), an increase of 3.2 pp, the highest peak by age group.
Those aged 30-44 also increase their AROPE rate by 1.7 pp, while those aged
45-64 grow, but at a lower level, only 1.2 pp.
Older persons have the lowest rate at 19.8% (20.5% in 2021), i.e. a decrease of
0.7 pp.
Table 2. AROPE and component indicators by age groups, in percentages
Age
groups
AROPE
At Risk of
Poverty (income
in the year prior
to the
interview)
Severe Material
Deprivation
Living in homes
with low work
intensity (from
0 to 59 years
old)
2022
2021
2022
2021
2022
2021
2022
2021
Below
16
16-29
32.5
31.2
28.7
27.6
8.6
9.1
8.8
7.0
33.5
30.3
24.8
22.7
9.9
9.3
13.7
10.5
30-44
27.3
25.6
21.1
19.4
7.5
7.5
9.6
8.0
45-64
27.6
26.4
19.7
19.2
7.2
6.7
14.2
3.13
65 +
19.8
20.5
17.5
18.8
4.4
3.2
-
-
Source: INE, Survey of Living Conditions,
https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=10005
2021
and
2022,
available
at:
There are outstanding differences by sex and age in the AROPE indicator. In the
case of children, there is a slight difference in favour of boys, regarding girls, of
0.4 percentage points. With respect young people, the AROPE rate for men raised
significantly from 2021, from 29.7% to 32.9%. The rate also goes up to 34.2%
in 2022 (33.8% in 2021) in the case of young women. Differences between
females and males are above 1 percentage point in the rest of age groups, with
the greatest among the elderly, with 4.2 percentage points.
Table 3. AROPE by age groups, by sex, in percentages
Age groups
Men
Women
Difference W-M in pp
Year
2022
2021
2022
2021
2022
2021
Below 16
32.7
28.2
32.3
32.1
-0.4
3.9
16-29
32.9
29.7
34.2
33.8
1.3
4.1
11
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
30-44
26.6
24.4
28.0
25.2
1.4
0.8
45-64
26.7
25.3
28.5
27.0
1.8
1.7
65 +
17.5
15.7
21.7
15.8
4.2
0.1
Source:
INE,
Survey
of
Living
https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=10005
3.1.3.
Conditions,
available
at
Nationality
Foreigners, both EU and non-EU, have a high probability of being at risk of
poverty and exclusion. This probability increased during the first year of the
pandemic.
The historical trend is confirmed in 2022. with an AROPE rate for the non-EU
population nearly triples that of the Spanish (66.1% and 23.4% respectively).
The AROPE rate of the EU population living in Spain is higher than the Spaniards’
by 16.9 percentage points.
Table 4. AROPE by nationality, in percentage
2022
2021
2020
Variation 2022-2021
pp
Total
26.7
25.5
24.4
1.2
Spanish
23.4
22.6
21.7
0.8
Foreign EU
40.3
43.4
46.2
-3.1
Foreign Non-EU
66.1
58.0
54.2
8.1
Nationality
Source:
INE,
Survey
of
Living
Conditions,
https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=10009
3.1.4.
2022,
available
at:
Education
In Spain it is striking that having a secondary education level does not protect
individuals from being poverty and/or excluded. As shown in the table, individuals
who attained primary and secondary (compulsory) education have the highest
AROPE rates, with 37.2% and 34.4%. Having university studies only reduces the
AROPE rate with respect to the average by 15.1 percentage points in 2022, with
a remarkable increase from the year before; therefore, this factor is not working
as a strong barrier against poverty.
Table 5. AROPE by educational attainment, in percentages
12
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
Primary education or lower
Secondary education first stage
Secondary education, second
stage
University education
2022
2021
37.2
34.4
27.1
36.0
32.5
26.0
2020 Variation 20222021 in pp.
31.6
1.2
31.7
1.9
23.7
1.1
15.1
13.7
13.7
Source:
INE,
Survey
of
Living
Conditions,
https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=10007
3.1.5.
1.4
2022,
available
at:
Occupation
57.1% of the unemployed (54.7% in 2021) and 40% of the inactive (38.6% in
2021) are in AROPE. It is important to note that 18.1% of the people who
work (15% in 2021) are at risk of poverty and social exclusion. The main
interannual variation corresponds to the retired, whose AROPE rate increased by
3.1 percentage points.
Table 6. AROPE by occupation status, in percentages
2022
Total
Occupied
Unemployed
Retired
Other inactive
2021
27.6
18.1
57.1
16.0
40.0
2020 Variation
2022-2021 in
pp.
24.4
1.1
15.3
3.1
56.9
2.4
14.0
-0.7
37.0
1.4
25.5
15.0
54.7
16.7
38.6
Source:
INE,
Survey
of
Living
Conditions,
https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=10008
3.1.6.
2022,
available
at:
Household type
The worse situation of single parent households should be highlighted again, as
in the previous years. The percentage of single parent households who are in
AROPE (an adult and dependent children) reaches 54.6% (49.1% in 2021). The
situation is also bad for the type ‘Other households with dependent children’
(meaning the parents are not there and there are other adults in replacement),
where nearly 4 out of 10 are in AROPE. The highest increase happened to singleperson households, with an interannual variation of 5.5 percentage points.
Table 7. AROPE by type of household, in percentages
2022
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
2021
2020
Variation
2022-2021
in pp.
13
Total
One person household
27.6
33.6
20.5
26.4
31.9
20.9
2 adults without dependent
children
Other households without
21.0
22.1
dependent children
1 adult with 1 or more dependent
54.6
49.1
children (single parents)
2 adults with 1 or more
27.8
24.4
dependent children
Other households with
37.1
37.8
dependent children
Source:
INE,
Survey
of
Living
Conditions,
https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=10010
25.3
26.1
20.3
1.2
1.7
-0.4
21.9
1.1
46.8
5.5
25.2
3.4
33.4
-0.7
2022,
available
at:
3.2. Geographic distribution
3.2.1.
AROPE by Autonomous Communities and Cities
With respect to 2021, only 5 territories improved their AROPE rate; these are the
autonomous city of Melilla, and the autonomous communities of Cantabria,
Galicia, Asturias, and Catalonia. The rest of the regions have worsened their level
of poverty and social exclusion in one year, up to 5 percentage points in the case
of the Region of Murcia, 4.2 pp. in the Autonomous Community of Navarre and
3.6 in the Autonomous City of Ceuta. The Autonomous Communities with the
highest AROPE rates are Ceuta (42.4%), Andalusia (38.4%), the Canary Islands
(38.3%) and Murcia (34.7%).
Table 8. AROPE by Autonomous Communities and Cities, in percentages
01 Andalucía
02 Aragón
38.4
20.3
35.1
18.5
Difference 20222021 in pp
3.3
1.8
03 Asturias, Principado de
26.6
27.7
-1.1
04 Balears, Illes
05 Canarias
06 Cantabria
07 Castilla y León
24.5
38.3
21.6
22.4
22
36.3
23.7
19.8
2.5
2.0
-2.1
2.6
08 Castilla - La Mancha
09 Cataluña
31.4
22.1
29.8
22.8
1.6
-0.7
2022
2021
14
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
10 Comunitat Valenciana
30.3
29.3
1.0
11 Extremadura
39.1
38.7
0.4
12 Galicia
24.5
25.7
-1.2
13 Madrid, Comunidad de
21.1
20.9
0.2
14 Murcia, Región de
34.7
29.7
5.0
15 Navarra, Comunidad Foral de
16.6
12.0
4.6
16 País Vasco
17 Rioja. La
18 Ceuta
19 Melilla
15.9
20.1
42.4
38.1
13.9
19.0
38.8
42.4
2.0
1.1
3.6
-4.3
Source:
INE,
Survey
of
Living
Conditions,
2022,
available
at:
available
at:
https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=10011
Map 1.
AROPE by Autonomous Communities and Cities
Source:
INE,
Survey
of
Living
Conditions,
2022,
https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=10011#!tabs-mapa
3.2.2.
At Risk of Poverty
Between 2022 and 2021, the at-risk-of-poverty rate decreased in 10 out of 19
autonomous communities and cities, while it worsened in 9. The most remarkable
increase happened in Andalucía and the Balearic Islands.
15
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
Table 9. At risk of Poverty Rate by Autonomous Communities and Cities, in
percentages.
TOTAL
01 Andalucía
02 Aragón
03 Asturias. Principado de
04 Balears. Illes
05 Canarias
06 Cantabria
07 Castilla y León
08 Castilla - La Mancha
09 Cataluña
10 Comunitat Valenciana
11 Extremadura
12 Galicia
13 Madrid. Comunidad de
14 Murcia. Región de
15 Navarra. Comunidad Foral de
16 País Vasco
17 Rioja. La
18 Ceuta
19 Melilla
2022
2021
21.7
32.3
15.8
20.4
17.6
28.4
15.4
17.9
27.4
14.8
25.1
32.2
20.2
15.2
27.7
9.8
12.2
16.1
32.3
30.1
21.0
28.5
16.0
22.2
14.1
29.9
18.0
15.1
25.1
16.7
24.6
31.4
22.1
15.4
25.0
9.9
10.0
15.0
35.3
36.3
Source:
INE,
Survey
of
Living
Conditions,
at:https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=10011
Map 2.
Difference
2022-2021 in
pp
0.7
3.8
-0.2
-1.8
3.5
-1.5
-2.6
2.8
2.3
-1.9
0.5
0.8
-1.9
-0.2
2.7
-0.1
2.2
1.1
-3
-6.2
2022,
available
At risk of Poverty Rate by Autonomous Communities and Cities
16
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
Source:
INE,
Survey
of
Living
Conditions,
2022,
available
at:
https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=10011#!tabs-mapa
3.2.3.
Severe Material Deprivation
In the Living Conditions Survey published in 2022, a methodological change was
introduced that particularly affects the "Severe Material Deprivation" Indicator.
For reasons of ease of comparison, in 2022 we continue to use the traditional
calculation methodology. The new calculation method will be incorporated in the
Poverty Watch 2023.
Considering the severe material deprivation, only 5 autonomous communities
reduced their rates, while the average increased by 0.7 percentage points. The
highest rate corresponds to Ceuta, which 17.2%. The lowest rate corresponds to
La Rioja, which 3.8%.
Table 10. Severe Material Deprivation Rates by Autonomous Communities and
Cities, in percentages
Total
01 Andalucía
02 Aragón
03 Asturias. Principado de
04 Balears. Illes
05 Canarias
2022
2021
7.3
10.2
5.6
5.5
8.5
13.5
7.0
8.0
1.7
4.5
6.9
10.7
Difference
between
2022-2021 in
pp.
0.3
2.2
3.9
1.0
1.6
2.8
17
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
06 Cantabria
07 Castilla y León
08 Castilla - La Mancha
09 Cataluña
10 Comunitat Valenciana
11 Extremadura
12 Galicia
13 Madrid. Comunidad de
14 Murcia. Región de
15 Navarra. Comunidad Foral de
16 País Vasco
17 Rioja. La
18 Ceuta
19 Melilla
5.7
3.8
5.1
7.3
7.1
6.9
3.8
6.0
9.1
5.5
5.2
3.8
21.4
17.2
Source:
INE,
Survey
of
Living
Conditions,
https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=10011
4.4
3.6
3.1
6.2
11.5
8.8
5.2
6.9
7.6
6.2
5.0
2.3
6.4
13.9
2022,
1.3
0.2
2.0
1.1
-4.4
-1.9
-1.4
-0.9
1.5
-0.7
0.2
1.5
15.0
3.3
available
at:
Map 3.
Severe Material Deprivation Rates by Autonomous Communities and
Cities
Source:
INE,
Survey
of
Living
Conditions,
2022,
available
at:
https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=10011#!tabs-mapa
3.2.3.1.
Food deprivation
18
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
Food insecurity is a manifestation of extreme poverty. Unfortunately, in Spain,
the proportion of the population living at risk of poverty and exclusion has
remained chronically above 23% and today it affects 27.6% of the entire
population, that is, just over 13 million people.
The statistical indicator offered by the Survey of Living Conditions is the tip of
the iceberg. Food insecurity raised in the last year and in 2022 in particular, due
to inflation. In Spain, prices have risen most notably since the beginning of 2021:
56% for oil, 17% for cereals, 16% for dairy products and eggs, and 10% for
meat, according to a recent report by the Bank of Spain. 15
According to the latest published data, the proportion of people who cannot buy
and consume a meal of meat, chicken, fish or its vegetarian equivalent has
doubled since 2015. Today it reaches 4.8% of women and 4.7 % of men. Children
and youth, immigrants and single-parent households are the most affected
sociodemographic groups.
Social policies, including food safety, are transferred and are the responsibility of
the regional governments. The Graph shows great territorial inequality in access
to the right to food. The Canary Islands, Ceuta and Melilla have the highest rates
of food deprivation, while Galicia, Aragón and Balearic Islands have the lowest.
Graph 1. Food deprivation rate by autonomous communities and cities
14.4
12.6
10.6
6.9
6.8
5.1
6.1
5
2.8
2.9
3.2
4.5
4.2
4.5
4.2
4.1
2.4
4.7
4.3
3.1
15
Borrallo,F; Cuadro, L y Pérez, J. (2022), “El aumento de los precios de las materias primas alimenticias
y su traslación a los precios de consumo en el área del Euro”. Banco de España, Boletín Económico, 3/2022,
available
at:
https://www.bde.es/f/webbde/SES/Secciones/Publicaciones/InformesBoletinesRevistas/ArticulosAnalitico
s/22/T3/Fich/be2203-art23.pdf
19
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
Source:
INE,
Survey
of
Living
Conditions,
https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=9975
3.2.3.2.
2022,
available
at:
Financial exclusion
The term refers to the inability or difficulty of access and / or use of financial
services and products in the general market, which are appropriate to their needs
and allow them to lead a normal social life in the society to which they belong.
Due to the difficulty of accessing a job with a living wage and the high costs of
housing, many are unable to meet the costs of utilities, basic needs, and food.
The Survey of Living Conditions provide three variables that indicate a situation
of financial exclusion: “not being able to face unforeseen expenses”, “reaching
the end of the month with great difficulty” and “having delays in the payments
for the main housing”. In total, 43.7% of the households suffer some degree of
difficulty in making ends meet. The rate scales up to 66% in the case of single
parent households.
Table 11. Households suffering a degree of difficulty in making ends meet
With great
difficulty
With
difficulty
With some
difficulty
Total
8,6
12,3
22,8
One person households
10,4
12,9
22,5
2
adults
without
dependent children
5,7
9,2
21
Other
without
children
6,6
12,5
23,9
1 adult with 1 or more
dependent
children
(single parents)
17,2
21,7
27,1
2 adults with 1 or more
dependent children
8,6
13
22,9
12,9
16,2
27,9
households
dependent
Other households
dependent children
with
Source:
INE,
Survey
of
Living
Conditions,
https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=9992
2022,
available
at:
20
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
The set of policy measures known as the ‘Social Shield’ mainly protects
a certain type of ‘vulnerable households’ who can document their
circumstances, but many people who live in poverty, with high debts, in
precarious housing or homeless are not in the list or they have no means
to prove their hardships. Immigrants and locals working in the black economy
cannot prove their income has fallen or their jobs have been lost, so they survive
on food aid and casual precarious work. The labour market continues to take its
toll on women, as analysed afterwards. Once again, when a new crisis comes, it
is even worse for women and gender equality is facing a setback.
Table 12.
Households in financial distress
Do not have the capacity to meet
unforeseen expenses
Total
Men
Women
Difference
women-men in
pp.
2022
33.4
32.6
34.2
1.6
Have had delays in the payment
of expenses related to your main
residence (mortgage or rent, gas
bills, community fees, etc.) in the
last 12 months.
2021
35.4
34.1
36.5
2.4
Source:
INE,
Survey
of
Living
Conditions,
https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=9967
3.2.4.
2022
12.6
12.8
12.3
-0.5
2022,
2021
12.2
12.5
11.9
-0.6
available
at:
Living in households with low work intensity (from 0 to 59
years old)
.
Only 6 autonomous communities reduced their rate of households living with low
work intensity, while the other 13 worsened with respect 2021.
Melilla, Canary Islands and Ceuta suffer from the worst situation regarding this
indicator, with 26.5%, 32.3% and 20.4% respectively. The regions with the
lowest rates are La Rioja, País Vasco and Madrid, with 6.1% , 7.0% and 8%
respectively.
Table 13. ‘Living in homes with low work intensity’ by Autonomous Communities
and Cities
2022
2021
Difference
between
2022-2021
in pp
21
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
Total
01 Andalucía
02 Aragón
03 Asturias. Principado de
04 Balears. Illes
05 Canarias
06 Cantabria
07 Castilla y León
08 Castilla - La Mancha
09 Cataluña
10 Comunitat Valenciana
11 Extremadura
12 Galicia
13 Madrid. Comunidad de
14 Murcia. Región de
15 Navarra. Comunidad Foral de
16 País Vasco
17 Rioja. La
18 Ceuta
19 Melilla
11.7
18.0
7.6
14.1
9.1
21.3
11.0
8.2
8.2
9.5
11.2
13.7
9.9
8.0
12.8
8.9
7.0
6.1
20.4
26.5
Source:
INE,
Survey
of
Living
Conditions,
https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=10011
9.9
13.5
6.1
17.8
4.5
15.3
7.8
7.9
8.0
9.8
11.3
11.9
8.5
6.0
9.2
7.5
7.4
6.0
22.5
28.2
2022,
1.8
4.5
1.5
-3.7
4.6
6.0
3.2
0.3
0.2
-0.3
-0.1
1.8
1.4
2.0
3.6
1.4
-0.4
0.1
-2.1
-1,7
available
at:
Map 4.
‘Living in homes with low work intensity’ by Autonomous Communities
and Cities
Source:
INE,
Survey
of
Living
Conditions,
2022,
available
at:
https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=10011#!tabs-mapa
22
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
4. What is happening to poverty? What are the
groups most affected?
4.1. Wealth concentration and inequality keep increasing
The richest 1% account for 17% of national income. The poorest half of the
population had not yet recovered the pre-crisis income level of 2008 when the
pandemic broke out, according to the "EsadeEcPol" report. 16
The findings for Spain are as follows:
-
-
-
-
The weight of capital income (25% of the total) did not grow as much with
respect to labour income (75%) compared to other developed countries.
The levels of income inequality are higher than those obtained in previous
studies based on surveys or tax data. The top 1% earn between 13 and 17%
of national income (rather than 10 or 11% according to previous estimates).
Income inequalities narrowed during the years of the housing boom but have
increased since the outbreak of the financial crisis in 2008, mainly due to
rising unemployment, wage cuts and the growth of financial rents among the
top income groups. The share of the top 1% in national income has increased
from 13% in 2007 to 17% in 2019.
Tax revenues increased during the 1980s (from 15 to 26% of national income)
and have remained relatively constant since then. However, the composition
of tax revenues by type of tax has changed significantly. Corporate income
tax became more important than personal income tax during the real estate
boom, but with the arrival of the financial crisis its share fell significantly.
The system of taxes and transfers, as well as public consumption in health
and education, make it possible to reduce part of the income inequalities. In
2019, the poorest 50% had 14% and 17% before and after redistribution,
respectively. However, patterns of inequality do not change substantially
through the state's redistributive action. The progressivity of the tax system
fell since the 2008 financial crisis.
These results show that inequality is a complex and multidimensional
phenomenon, which needs to be tackled through different approaches and
policies. The most important of these are outlined below:
-
There is a need to improve education policies to close education gaps, as well
as to move towards reducing high unemployment and temporariness to
improve the incomes of middle and low incomes. These changes should be
accompanied by the promotion of a new productive model that generates new
16
Artola, Miguel; Martínez Toledano, Clara and Sodano, Alice (2022), Desigualdad de la Renta y
Redistribución en España: Nueva Evidencia a partir de la Metodología del World Inequality Lab.
ESADE.
Available
at:
https://www.esade.edu/ecpol/es/publicaciones/desigualdad-de-la-renta-yredistribucion-en-espana-nueva-evidencia-a-partir-de-la-metodologia-del-world-inequality-lab/
23
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
-
-
jobs and greater added value with the help of new technologies in sectors in
which the country has a comparative advantage.
Excessive exposure to housing perpetuates a brick-based production model,
increases systemic risks (given the lack of asset diversification) and inevitably
concentrates corporate profits among the wealthiest. Financial education
policies, incentives for asset diversification and employee shareholding in
companies are needed.
On taxation, it is key to increase the redistributive nature of the system. The
most urgent measure lies in the reform of corporate taxation in order to
recover the effective levels of tax pressure prior to 2008. Likewise,
harmonisation of property taxation should be sought, in particular property
taxes (IBI, Wealth Tax and Inheritance/Donation Tax) with a view to
increasing the system's progressivity.
The concentration of wealth and the increase in poverty should not happen in the
post-pandemic reconstruction. To avoid this, it is essential to increase social
investment, extend and improve the effectiveness of the 'Social Shield', with firm
commitments against poverty and inequality. The Recovery, Transformation and
Resilience Plan, in addition to getting off on the right foot, should contribute to
guaranteeing this rights approach, especially for women and groups living in
poverty and social vulnerability.
4.2. People in Poverty
People are considered to live in poverty when they cannot have the material,
cultural and social resources necessary to satisfy their basic needs and, therefore,
are excluded from the minimally acceptable living conditions for the country or
region in which they live.
With this extremely scarce budget, people must cover all their needs: housing,
food, clothing, education of their children, health, energy, leisure, and others. As
that is impossible, they try to ensure the most strictly basic needs. However,
many cannot. Their main difficulty is to resolve the permanent obligation to
choose, to make a gradation between indispensable needs; between food and
heat, between culture and diapers, between computer and shoes, and so on ...
People in poverty are subjects to many stereotypes and prejudices. These
prejudiced ideas create biases and limit the ability to propose efficient rightsbased solutions. For example, poverty is identified with immigration,
homelessness, lack of education, or unemployment. However, none of these
characteristics corresponds to the profile of the majority. With respect to the
general population, people in poverty live much worse, have greater difficulties
in dealing with any negative event. If something bad happens, it causes more
serious consequences and it is very difficult for them to escape from that situation
on their own.
24
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
Despite the set of policy measures adopted, some with great impact,
others with limited coverage and some yet to be implemented, the
statistics on poverty and inequality show a deterioration of social
cohesion in Spain. The recovery that was to unfold after the pandemic
started strongly, especially in economic sectors such as tourism which
is central to the Spanish economy. However, this recuperation is now
facing a new economic and energy crisis, partly attributable to the
effects of Russia's war against Ukraine.
4.3. Anti-poverty Strategy
The National Strategy for the Prevention and Fight against Poverty and
Social Exclusion 2019-2023 was approved on March 22, 2019, aimed at
combatting poverty, and reducing inequality in income levels. The Strategy has
been under review since 2020, due to the changes in the poverty situation and
the need to act rapidly against economic shocks. The EPSR Action Plan motivated
the Government to open a political debate, with the participation of the civil
society organisations. The idea to set up ambitious goals in poverty reduction
was mentioned, but it was not put into practice. As most of the competences
regarding social affairs rely under the competence of the autonomous
communities, this should be a joint effort everywhere through, and especially by
those regions with the highest poverty rates.
4.4. Child Guarantee Plan
Spain is one of the EU countries with the highest rate of child poverty, after
Romania and Bulgaria. This is the result of a combination of three factors: a poor
distribution of the wealth generated in the country; labour relations that generate
exclusion and an underdeveloped system of social protection for children and
families. The consequences for children are a limitation in the enjoyment of rights
and opportunities in the present, and a disregard for their talent caused by the
lack of equal opportunities in the future.
The European Child Guarantee is a recommendation of the European Council,
approved by the Member States on 14 June, which aims to prevent and combat
the social exclusion of children by providing effective access, regardless of
income level, to six services essential for children's development.
In July 2022, the Council of Ministers approved the State Action Plan for the
implementation of the Child Guarantee. The Plan distinguishes 3 services
that must be free of charge: early childhood education and care; out-of-school
education and activities; and at least one free healthy meal at school. In addition,
25
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
it sets out 3 other services that must be affordable: healthy nutrition, health
services and adequate housing.17
The President Sanchez indicated that, with this Plan, "we can say that Spain is
moving towards a much fairer and more dignified country". He insisted that the
Government "is committed to improving the situation of children and adolescents
in our country", as reflected in the different measures it has adopted. He
highlighted as a "fundamental milestone" the deployment of the Minimum Vital
Income and the Child Support Supplement, with 3,022 million euros dedicated
to financing these benefits: "Never before has such an investment been dedicated
to the fight against child poverty", he stressed.
He also referred to the programme for family protection and attention to child
poverty with 199 million euros in 2022, more than double that of 2018; the
investment in first cycle education from 0 to 3 years of age, "free and of quality",
with an investment of 671 million euros; the programme for Educational
Guidance, Advancement and Enrichment PROA+, which will have a budget of 360
million euros, the Personal and Family Accompaniment and Guidance Units for
educationally vulnerable students, with 125 million euros; the digital skills
programme for children and adolescents at risk of digital exclusion, with a budget
of 222 million euros.
Sánchez highlighted other important policies such as scholarships, the expansion
of services such as oral and dental care in the National Health System, and the
approval of the first National Strategic Plan for the Reduction of Childhood
Obesity, as well.18
These are new policies and therefore there is no evaluation available, which
remains to be done in future Poverty Watch Reports.
4.5. Law on the Right to Housing
The rising housing prices has a great impact on low-and-middle-income families.
The EAPN ES study published in December 2021 on this issue explains the
problem of the high percentage of salary spent on buying, renting, and paying
for utilities, due to the tight market and the lack of social housing alternatives
17
https://www.lamoncloa.gob.es/consejodeministros/referencias/Paginas/2022/refc20220705_cc.aspx#Inf
antil
18
https://www.comisionadopobrezainfantil.gob.es/es/el-presidente-del-gobierno-la-ministra-dederechos-sociales-y-agenda-2030-y-el-alto-comisionado
26
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
(especially social rental and/or affordable, below market prices). 19 There is a
consensus that housing has gone from being a social good to a consumer
good, a market good.
The people interviewed point out that the housing problem must be tackled, not
from the perspective of the property market or as a material good, but from the
perspective of the home as the space where the people who live there develop:
-
"That is exactly what is being raised right now in the debate, access to housing
as something more than a roof over one's head, but a space of security from
which to start building." (Fatima, 53 years old, Spanish, has a single parent
and a large family, lives in a social housing project in Melilla).
Another case is that of Tania, who is about to be evicted from her home for nonpayment of rent, due to the fact that her Minimum Living Income wa suspended
and not replaced by other income. She must leave her home and has no
alternative housing: the Social Services do not offer her any kind of resource.
-
"...there are people who have their parents, and they can stay at home, even
if it is only for a while. But me... Look, my mother is worse off than me, she
has a house, yes, but a brother of mine lives with her who is married and has
a little girl, all in one room. I have another brother who has three grown-up
children who are in the same situation as me, who can't find a flat. (...) Even
if they want to help me, they can't. I see myself on the street, I can't find a
place to live. I see myself on the streets because I don't know where to go. If
you have a brother who has an empty room, if you have your mother ... at
least you can stay in her house for a while. But I don't have anyone to help
me! Because they are almost the same or worse. They are bad too." (Tania,
40 years old, Spanish, single parent with two dependent children, Spanish
Roma, victim of gender-based violence. Currently living in a rented flat in the
process of eviction in Castilla y León).
The interviewees experience many situations in which housing "is just a roof over
their heads" and not a place where people can feel secure to develop a life
project. Facing the costs of housing is a major constraint on their already
precarious economies and, in many cases, does not allow them to cover their
most basic needs.
Prices are inflated by the touristic residential market and the speculation in the
real estate, leading to abusive pricing of rented accommodation. The
requirements for access to rental housing exclude many of the people that are
assisted by civil society organisations. In addition to these factors of economic
19
Malgesini, Graciela (Dir), González, Sara and Gracia, Eva (2021), El derecho a la vivienda. La
perspectiva
autonómica.
EAPN
España,
December.
Available
at:
https://www.eapn.es/publicaciones/490/el-derecho-a-la-vivienda-la-perspectiva-autonomica
27
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
exclusion and lack of social housing alternatives, there are also processes of
racism, xenophobia, and multiple discrimination, such as aporophobia.
One aspect that stands out is the substandard housing to which people in
situations of poverty and exclusion have access, often in the form of rented
rooms in shared flats, without any regulation that guarantees minimum
conditions of habitability. Another issue highlighted is the presence of
architectural barriers (ageing, unrehabilitated housing stock) in many of them,
which condemns thousands of people to an extremely limited or isolated life. This
is a key factor in the specific exclusion of people with reduced mobility, causing
or aggravating unwanted loneliness on many occasions.
According to researcher Jesús Leal, it would take at least two decades to reach a
reasonable level of housing resources (with 1.23 million more rental housing
units) and to reach 9% of the social housing stock adapted to the economic
capacity of the most vulnerable households.20
In February 2022, the Government submitted the draft Law on the Right to
Housing to the Spanish Parliament for urgent parliamentary processing. One of
the most important measures concerns the public social housing stock. This is
subject to permanent protection "so that it cannot be sold off, as has happened
in the past". It imposes a compulsory reserve of 30% of any social housing
development and that, of that 30%, 15% must go to social renting. It is hoped
to gradually build up a public housing stock in line with European countries (in
France, he gave as an example, there is seven times more social housing than in
Spain, and in the Netherlands the number is twelve times higher than in Spain).
The law will improve the regulation of evictions in situations of vulnerability. From
now on, social services will coordinate more effectively with judges to be able to
offer housing solutions to those affected. The law will guarantee that the housing
alternative sought for these families will be a home as such, and not a shelter,
as is currently the case in some autonomous communities.
The competent administrations will be able to declare, for a limited period of
time, "stressed residential market areas" and establish measures to prevent
abusive increases in rent and achieve a reduction in prices, either by reducing
the cost of rent or by increasing supply. In these areas, the envisaged tax
incentives are designed to make it more profitable for landlords to lower rental
prices.
20
Evaluation by Jesús Leal, Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the Complutense University of Madrid, in
his presentation at the Round Table "The right to housing" at the EAPN-ES Annual Seminar, held on 29,
30 November and 1 December 2021 in Palma de Mallorca, under the theme "The reconstruction of social
Europe in times of pandemic".
28
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
With regard to empty homes, the law envisages that local councils can levy a
surcharge of up to 150% on the Property Tax (IBI) levied on them, in order to
get them onto the rental or sale market.
4.6. National Strategy against Energy Poverty
Heat waves and extreme temperatures caused by the climate crisis highlight
summer energy poverty in Spain. There are three main causes: low household
income, high energy prices and the energy inefficiency of housing due to its poor
construction quality.
In June 2022, with thermometers reaching and even exceeding 40ºC in several
parts of the peninsula, Spain is already experiencing its first major heatwave in
2022 before the summer has even begun and in a context of unprecedentedly
high energy prices. In fact, this is the worst heat wave in June in 20 years and
can only be explained in a climate change scenario.
Cooling degree (CDD) days vary across the EU. Annual averages across 42 years,
from 1979 to 2021, show that Cyprus had the highest CDD (577), followed by
Malta (574), Greece (272) and Spain (200). The lowest values for this index were
calculated for Ireland (0.03), Sweden (0.37) and Denmark (0.91). This means
that for a given building, the need for cooling (or air conditioning) in Ireland,
Sweden and Denmark were negligible between 1979 and 2021. In Spain, the
following Graph shows that more and more we need to put the air conditioning
on.
Graph 2. Annual evolution of the heat severity indicator in Spain. Measured in
cooling degree days (CCD).
29
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
Source: EUROSTAT. The use of indicators or indexes such as Heating degree days
and Cooling degree days can contribute to the correct interpretation of energy
consumption for cooling and heating buildings. Heating degree days (HDD) and
cooling degree days (CDD) are weather-based technical indexes designed to describe
the energy requirements of buildings in terms of heating (HDD) or cooling (CDD).
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statisticsexplained/index.php?title=Heating_and_cooling_degree_days_-_statistics
In addition to the impact of this high temperature of the land and seas, rainfall
and harvests, there are also consequences for people's health. Extreme heat
particularly affects the more than 3 million people in Spain who live in energy
poverty, which represents 16.8% of the population.
The risk of mortality is primarily explained by the level of household income. The
impact of climate change is more accentuated in disadvantaged social groups,
according to a study on the socioeconomic factors involved in the impact of heat
waves carried out by the Carlos III Institute of Health (ISCIII).21
Frozen in winter and scorched in summer. When the good weather arrives, the
two million households suffering from energy poverty in Spain tremble, but with
fear. Keeping their homes at the right temperature is an added difficulty to their
economic problems, and if they can do so, it is at the cost of choosing between
turning on the air conditioning or buying a variety of foodstuffs. 14% of Spaniards
are unable to keep their homes at 26 degrees during heat waves, according to
data from the INE's Living Conditions Survey and the Foessa Foundation, the
Caritas organisation specialising in the country's social situation.
In many cases, these are homes without air conditioning or fans, but having
these cooling devices does not guarantee freedom from the heatwave either. To
simply switch them on, without luxury, Foessa estimates that a family of four will
spend 25 euros a week, about 100 euros a month. The amount is less than what
is required in winter, when it takes 40 euros a week - 160 euros a month - to
keep the house at 21 degrees, but it represents a huge outlay in these
households.22
Therefore, families are at a crossroads. Even if houses have an air conditioner,
the first element to combat extreme heat, low-income people tend not to use it
21
López-Bueno, J. A.; Díaz, J., Sánchez-Guevara, C.; Sánchez-Martínez, G.; Franco, M.; Gullón, P.; Núñez
Peiró, M.; Valero, I.; and Linares, C. (2020), “The impact of heat waves on daily mortality in districts in
Madrid: The effect of sociodemographic factors,” Environmental Research, Volume 190, ISSN 00139351, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2020.109993.
22
Alvaro Soto, “Mantener una vivienda a 26 grados en verano cuesta cien euros al mes”, Diario Sur, July
19, 2022, available at: https://www.diariosur.es/sociedad/mantener-vivienda-26-grados-gasto-cieneuros-mes-20220719181934-ntrc.html
30
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
even if they are suffering. The inability to use the appliance even if it is available,
still little explored, is potentially a very relevant facet of fuel poverty.
Along with vulnerable people and the elderly and dependent persons, another of
the most affected groups is children, who must face the end of the school year
in schools and kindergartens built before energy efficiency criteria were in place
and are therefore not adapted to cope with these heat waves.
Given this reality, there is an urgent need to adapt and refurbish homes with
criteria based on energy efficiency, to improve insulation and enclosures, since
the cheapest energy is that which is not consumed, combined with the
replacement of equipment with more efficient ones and the integration of
renewable energies that allow homes to be cooled in a clean and affordable way.
To this, energy-saving habits should be added, such as ventilation early or late
in the day; the use of curtains, blinds and awnings to avoid direct sunlight; the
use of fans instead of air conditioners (as they consume up to 20 times less
electricity) or, if the latter are used, not lowering the temperature below 26 °C.
Each degree lower than this means 7% more energy consumption.23
Improving the insulation of roofs and façades, changing windows, using passive
ventilation techniques, installing air-conditioning equipment, installing
photovoltaic panels for community energy self-consumption, or increasing
vegetation in playgrounds to create shaded areas and cool them are some
measures that should be generalised to cope with early and extreme summers.
Due to the importance of the rate of households that could not maintain the
adequate temperature in their home, close to 10%, the Government of Spain
passed the National Strategy against Energy Poverty 2019-2024.24
The Spanish government has boosted the use of the ‘Bono Social Eléctrico’, a
25% discount on electricity bills for those considered 'vulnerable consumers', in
order to alleviate energy poverty. In 2022, other measures were adopted in order
to contain energy prices, although they do not seem to have been sufficient in
the face of the crisis generated by Russia's war against Ukraine. The discount on
the Bono will be 60% until 31 December 2022.25
23
The civil society organisation ECODES develops the programme “Not a Single Home without Energy”
(“Ni Un Hogar Sin Energía”) to tackle energy poverty, helping more than 10,000 families since 20121.
More information available at https://ecodes.org/sala-de-prensa/notas-de-prensa/la-pobreza-energeticauna-realidad-al-alza-tambien-en-verano
The indicator also known as “Energy poverty” showed rates of 8.3% households in 2017; 9.6% in 2018;
7.7% in 2919 and 11.1% in 2020, according to the Living Conditions Survey, available at https://www.
.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=9974
24
25
https://www.bonosocial.gob.es/#quees
31
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
5. Labour market reform
5.1. A long-standing demand
In December 2021, the Labour Reform, a long-standing demand from
social partners and civil society organisations, was approved. 26 This
reform is not the full repeal of the 2012 reform, carried out in the midst of the
economic crisis and austerity policies. However, the 2021 reform incorporates
several significant changes that will improve the working conditions of workers
with precarious contracts.
The regulation modifies several articles of the current Workers' Statute,
especially with regard to contracts and collective bargaining. The goal is to
popularise permanent contracts and limit temporary ones, and to give back to
workers the bargaining power lost with the 2012 reform.
Before the 2021 reform, there were 4 types of employment contracts in Spain:
permanent, temporary, training and internship. The main problem was the abuse
of temporary contracts. Spain was the EU country with the highest rate of
temporary workers, 24.7% in 2020. The European average was 13.6%. 27 Labour
precarity is directly related to in-work poverty. Therefore, an improvement in this
area would bring a reduction of this issue (to be confirmed with 2022 data).
The first results for 2022 are consistent with the objectives pursued by the labour
reform: There are more permanent contracts than ever before. From 132,431 in
January 2021 to 316,841 in February 2022 (139.2% compared to the same
month in 2021). This type of contract already represents 22% of all contracts
signed and has a positive impact on Social Security (temporary contracts are still
the majority, standing at just over 1,100,000).
Some economists argue that this trend towards permanent contracts may be due
to the post-pandemic economic recovery rather than the labour reform. But the
plummeting number of one-day 'express contracts' in January 2022, just after
the labour reform, can be attributed to this change in legislation.
Since the new labour reform came into force on 31 December, every time
companies terminate a contract that lasted less than 30 days, they must pay a
26
Real Decreto-ley 32/2021, de 28 de diciembre, de medidas urgentes para la reforma laboral, la garantía
de la estabilidad en el empleo y la transformación del mercado de trabajo. - Boletín Oficial del Estado de
30-12-2021, available at: https://www.boe.es/buscar/act.php?id=BOE-A-2021-21788
27
https://www.businessinsider.es/estas-son-claves-acuerdo-nueva-reforma-laboral-985489
32
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
penalty of 26 euros per dismissed employee. "The proportion of one-day
contracts out of the total number of contracts signed in January is 38.4% on
average between 2017 and 2020. In January 2022 it is 29.5%," said the Minister
for Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, José Luis Escrivá. 28
One of the most striking figures is that of permanent-discontinuous contracts,
the star contract of the labour reform. These are the type of contract that the
government wants to promote for more seasonal activities, such as tourism,
where companies used to resort to temporary contracts. 2022 has started with
74,014 employees who have signed permanent-discontinuous contracts, a
modality that until now was residual.
This Royal Decree also includes measures to facilitate the use of temporary
employment procedures (ERTE), as an alternative and priority formula to
redundancies, to meet exceptional needs of a macroeconomic or sectoral nature
that justify the adoption of adjustment and temporary protection measures
("RED Flexibility and Employment Stabilisation Mechanism").
The report "First effects of the labour reform of 2021. A blow to temporary
employment and improvement of rights", prepared by the UGT Confederal
Research Service, points out that the labour reform has led to a sharp increase
in permanent contracts, thus significantly reducing the rate of temporary
employment and increasing the weight of stable employment, and benefiting
more some of the population groups and branches of activity that traditionally
had more precarious contractual conditions.29
In a scenario marked by the economic slowdown and uncertainty in the
international context, the UGT union highlights that the percentage of collective
dismissals fell by 61.7% in the first four months of 2022, compared to the
previous year, while there has been a certain increase in the use of ERTE
mechanisms.
Moreover, in terms of wages, the reform has already improved the conditions of
many workers in multiservice companies, with increases that could be between
1,000 and 7,000 euros per year, depending on the agreement in question.
Graph 3. Minimum Wage in Spain, 12 monthly payments
28
https://www.businessinsider.es/huellas-reforma-laboral-6-graficos-demuestran-efectos-1021873
29
UGT
(2022),
Primeros
efectos
de
la
reforma
laboral
2021.
Available
at:
https://www.ugt.es/sites/default/files/no_40_-_220718_primeros_efectos_de_la_reforma_laboral.pdf
33
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
Source: https://datosmacro.expansion.com/smi/espana
5.2. Women are still behind
The post Covid-19 economic recovery is resting on two areas, digitalisation, and
energy transition. Both draw on a male-dominated workforce, given that these
are sectors with the largest gender gaps, especially in the ICT sector. By the end
of 2021, 0.2% of the labour force was engaged in the "Manufacture of computer,
electronic and optical products", some 36,000 people. Of these, 22,500 (62.5%)
are men and 13,500 (37.5%) are women. 30 In addition to the employment gap,
there is also a gender pay gap. On the other hand, automation is affecting certain
jobs performed mainly by women, with low-skills and income.31
5.2.1.
Activity gap
As shown in the following Graph, except for 2020, the level of occupied persons
increased in the last years, even despite the pandemic. This is due to the fall of
unemployment. The level of inactive population is nearly stagnated in the last
decade.
Graph 4. Evolution of unemployed, occupied, and inactive population
30
INE, Survey of Economic Population, available at: https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=4878
31
34
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Web: https://www.eapn.es/
Red: unemployed; Green: occupied; Grey: Inactive. Source: Economic Population
Survey.
The differences between men and women activity rates deepened with
the pandemic. In 2020, women had an activity rate that was 10 points lower
than that of men (53.5% and 63.3% respectively). In 2021, it only ‘recovered’
up to the pre-pandemic level (53.7%).
Graph 5. Activity rate by sex
63.57
64.28
62.93
53.73
53.30
52.24
2021
2020
Men
2019
Women
Source:
INE,
Economic
Population
https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=4734
Survey,
available
at:
The small improvement is uneven within the autonomous communities. The cities
of Melilla and Ceuta, and the regions of Cantabria, Madrid, and Murcia showed a
more than 1 percentage point increase in the female activity rate in 2021, with
regards 2019. The rest remained at the same pre-pandemic level or even
worsened.
Table 14. Female activity rate by autonomous cities and communities
2021
2020
2019
Difference
between 2021
35
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01 Andalucía
02 Aragón
03 Asturias, Principado de
04 Balears, Illes
05 Canarias
06 Cantabria
07 Castilla y León
08 Castilla - La Mancha
09 Cataluña
10 Comunitat Valenciana
11 Extremadura
12 Galicia
13 Madrid, Comunidad de
14 Murcia, Región de
15 Navarra, Comunidad Foral de
16 País Vasco
17 Rioja, La
18 Ceuta
19 Melilla
50,89
53,99
46,48
59,05
54,7
50,56
49,08
52,43
57,27
52,69
49,16
48,26
59,58
53,02
54,76
52,36
55,37
50,39
57,31
48,63
53,02
46,23
56,92
53,08
48,74
48,42
49,94
55,82
51,4
48,99
47,71
58,13
51,38
51,96
51,42
53,37
47,96
55,47
Source:
INE,
Economic
Population
https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=4939
5.2.2.
50,43
53,18
46,91
59,39
55,19
49,33
49,08
51,51
56,99
52,1
48,98
49,07
58,36
51,94
53,94
52,15
55,03
48,8
53,75
Survey,
and 2019 in
percentage point
0,46
0,81
-0,43
-0,34
-0,49
1,23
0
0,92
0,28
0,59
0,18
-0,81
1,22
1,08
0,82
0,21
0,34
1,59
3,56
available
at:
Employment gap
The employment rate, as the ratio of employed persons to the working-age
population, is a basic social indicator that provides insight into the situation of
advantage or disadvantage in employment on the basis of age or gender.
The gender gap in employment rates is the difference in percentage points
between male employment rates and female employment rates. In 2020, the gap
was 10.4 points. In 2021, there was a slight betterment, with a reduction of the
gap by 0.8 points, and by 1.2 points since 2019.
Table 15. Gender employment gap, population aged 15-64
2021
9.6
2020
10.4
2019
10.8
Source:
INE,
Economic
Population
https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=10883
5.2.3.
Difference between 2021-2019
-1.2
Survey,
available
at:
Unemployment gap
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Female unemployment is almost 4 points higher than male unemployment. This
gap is very steady throughout the 2019-2021 period. The 2021 female
unemployment rate descended from the 2020 rate but did not reach the prepandemic rate yet. This means that male unemployment reduced more (-0.82
point) than female (-0.72).
Table 16. Unemployment rate by sex
Sex
Year
Unemployment
Rate
Gender
Unemployment
gap
Male
2021
13.05
Female
2021
16.71
3.66
Male
2020
13.87
Female
2020
17.43
3.56
Source:
INE,
Economic
Population
https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=4887
Male
2019
12.45
Female
2019
15.99
3.54
Survey,
available
at:
The worse female unemployment rates were registered in Ceuta, Melilla, Canary
Islands and Andalucía, with regional economies devoted to services and tourism.
The lowest rates could be found in the País Vasco, Navarra, Cantabria, Galicia
and Madrid, with more diversified economies and labour market.
Map 5.
Female unemployment rates in 2021
Source:
INE,
Economic
Population
Survey,
https://www.ine.es/jaxiT3/Datos.htm?t=4966#!tabs-mapa
available
at:
In 2022, the unemployment rate kept lowering in average, but this is the effect
of the men’s rate reduction, although the gender unemployment gap is currently
37
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3.20 points in total. This gap is higher among the 25-to-54-year-old group. The
only difference favouring women belongs to the group under 20 years old.
Table 17. Unemployment rates by sex, second trimester 2022
Men
Women
Women-Men
unemployment
gap
Unemployment rate
12.50%
11.00%
14.20%
Unemployment under 25
Unemployment over 24
Unemployment under 20
Unemployment between 20
and 24 years old
Unemployment between 25
and 54 years old
Unemployment over 54
years old
28.50%
27.80%
29.40%
11.30%
9.70%
13.00%
48.70%
24.10%
49.40%
22.90%
47.80%
25.50%
3.20%
1.60%
3.30%
-1.60%
2.60%
11.20%
9.50%
13.00%
3.50%
11.70%
10.40%
13.20%
2.80%
Source:
INE,
Economic
Population
https://www.ine.es/daco/daco42/daco4211/epa0222.pdf
Survey,
6. People on benefits: Key challenges and priorities
6.1. Minimum Income: ‘Ingreso Mínimo Vital’ a year after 32
Until 2020, Spain was the only EU country that did not have a state-wide
Minimum Income scheme, equivalent to the ultimate safety net to fight severe
poverty and social exclusion. This deficit was compounded by the existence of
high levels of extreme poverty in comparison with our reference framework,
reaching 7% of the population (percentage of households below 30% of median
income), double the EU average and three times that of countries such as
Germany. For these reasons, the implementation of such a programme was a
recurrent recommendation of the European institutions, especially since 2014.33
32
This analysis is based on the Report directed by Graciela Malgesini, with the collaboration of Eva Gracia
Vega and Sara González Servant. Malgesini Rey, Graciela (Director) (2021), El Ingreso Mínimo Vital un
año después. La perspectiva autonómica. Serie Sociedades #1, December, EAPN Spain, available (in
Spanish)
at:
https://www.eapn.es/publicaciones/452/el-ingreso-minimo-vital-un-ano-despues-laperspectiva-autonomica
33
Seguridad Social, “Aclarando conceptos sobre el Ingreso Mínimo Vital”, June 8, 2020, available at:
https://revista.seg-social.es/2020/06/08/aclarando-conceptos-sobre-el-ingreso-minimo-vital/
38
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In the last twenty years, EAPN Europe had called for the need for a European
Minimum Income scheme, based on three criteria: "adequate, accessible and
enabling". In 2017, the European Pillar of Social Rights advanced in this line of
social policy in its principle number 14 "Right to a Minimum Income”.
Although minimum income schemes exist in all Member States, they vary
significantly in their adequacy, coverage, assimilation, and articulation with
labour market activation measures and enabling goods and services. There are
not only wide variations between countries in terms of benefit levels and
coverage, but also in terms of importance and role in the overall social protection
system. They are often the ultimate safety net and serve to guarantee a basic
level.
On 29 May 2020 the ‘Ingreso Mínimo Vital’ was approved by the Council of
Ministers. This decree was produced in the framework of the actions against
Covid-19, the so-called "Social Shield", but the proposal for a living minimum
income was already included in the Strategy for the Prevention and Fight against
Poverty approved in March 2019 by the previous government, in the electoral
proposals of the Socialist Party -PSOE- and ‘Unidas Podemos’, as well as in the
Agreement of the Coalition Government.
The endorsement process received a boost in the context of the Covid-19
pandemic and the "Social Shield" measures put in place to mitigate it. The
pandemic put the jobs and incomes of millions of people at risk and clearly
showed the strong links between having low incomes and various forms of
vulnerability. In this sense, the pandemic "punched a hole" in existing social
protection safety nets, leading to increased poverty and material deprivation.
6.2. Challenges faced by the the ‘Ingreso Mínimo Vital’
The ‘Ingreso Mínimo Vital’ (hereinafter IMV) is presented as the recognition of a
new citizens' right. The text of the Royal Decree specifies that "This benefit was
created with the main objective of guaranteeing, through the satisfaction of
minimum material conditions, the full participation of all citizens in social and
economic life, breaking the link between the structural absence of resources and
the lack of access to opportunities in the labour, educational or social spheres of
individuals. The benefit is therefore not an end in itself, but a tool to facilitate the
transition of individuals from the social exclusion imposed on them by the
absence of resources to a situation in which they can develop fully in society.
On the other hand, the IMV is initially conceived as a living benefit, giving great
importance to the evaluation of the measure in order to adjust it to reality, taking
into account both self-evaluation and external evaluation by other social agents.
39
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In this sense, article 30 of the Royal Decree includes the creation of a IMV
Monitoring Commission and article 31, the creation of a IMV Advisory Council as
a consultation and participation body with civil society organisations, trade unions
and employers' organisations.
The implementation of the IMV also generated intense advocacy activity from the
civil society organisations to defend the rights of people living in poverty to an
adequate benefit. In the months following its enactment, there were several
amendments to the decree, while the bill attracted a great deal of parliamentary
debates.
The confinement and lockdown situation of Covid-19 was a handicap for the
accessibility of the most vulnerable people to the benefit. The lack of information,
attention, and support for people with fewer digital skills, problems of access to
the internet and low levels of education meant that many vulnerable families had
been left behind, especially in the early stages. There were many obstacles
blocking the access of people experiencing poverty to the benefit.
One of the great challenges facing the implementation of the ‘Ingreso Mínimo
Vital’ is that of reaching the proposed coverage targets. The latest data provided
by the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration (March 2022) indicated
that the IMV had reached 428,043 households. Considering that the forecast was
to reach 850,000 households, this means that just 50.3% of the target declared
by the government in June 2020 when it announced the launch of the benefit
was reached. The State is having problems responding to the large number of
applications received. On the other hand, as the IMV is considered as the ‘base
benefit’, people in poverty must apply for it (even though they know that they
do not meet some of the requirements) in order to be able to apply for the
‘regional minimum incomes’ for which they do fit, once they get rejected from
the former. This activity generates unexpected traffic in the Social Security
administration and the resulting delays in access to basic resources for the
neediest.
6.2.1.
Slow pace of processing of applications and difficulties in the
process of rectification
Due to its recent creation and the crisis generated by the security measures in
the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, the implementation of the IMV faced the lack
of a specific administrative infrastructure for its management, which resulted in
significant delays in the processing of applications. The IMV logically requires a
process and time for implementation, but implementation is proving particularly
difficult for a number of reasons.
a) There was no single database of potential beneficiaries or cohabitation units.
40
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b) The responsible public administration had not been previously trained on the
nature and content of the IMV, nor on the characteristics of the profiles of the
applicants.
c) There was already a system of regional minimum incomes, active in most of
the Autonomous Communities, whereby income transfers were made to
households with very low incomes, within the framework of basic social
services and, on occasions, as part of regional social inclusion plans. The basis
for linking these systems had not been established, which gave rise to a
variety of coexistence modalities at the regional level.
d) The closure of the physical offices of the public administrations "rushed" the
process to their forced digitalisation, without a prior assessment of the real
response capacity to circumvent problems such as incomplete, poorly
prepared, duplicated applications, etc., which add to the already huge
workload already foreseen.
e) The lack of "automatic filters" in the processes of data transfer from the
Autonomous Communities to the National Institute of Social Security means
that an individual analysis of each file is necessary, which generates delays
and defencelessness for applicants, who in many cases see their minimum
incomes suspended while they await the resolution of the National Institute
of Social Security.
f) The complexity of the "proofs" requested lengthened the procedures for each
file. Instead of following the good practice of the Tax Office (AEAT), whereby
the person authorises the agency to access their personal data, the IMV asked
people to search for and provide documentation that is already in the
possession of the administration, with the time and effort involved, and with
the offices closed for security in the face of the pandemic.
g) Because the IMV is the "basic" benefit, those who decide to apply for the
regional minimum income must first apply for the IMV and in a second step,
having already had their refusal documented, are in a position to apply for the
regional appeal. This requirement adds difficulties and delays to the process.
These factors have generated uneasiness among people in severe poverty who
did not see a positive resolution of their situation of need. On the other hand, the
lack of sufficient, clear or well-founded explanations in cases of refusals led to
numerous appeals in addition to the pending procedures.
People who have applied for the IMV and have not yet received a response must
still find resources to survive during the months of waiting, but it must be borne
in mind that those who have applied for the IMV cannot always apply for the
regional minimum income (in communities where the subsidiary nature is
maintained), nor for other structural aid, blocking, for the moment, the coverage
of the most basic needs of the most vulnerable people and causing a situation of
social emergency that is not being addressed.
In this sense, at the end of 2020, in some Autonomous Communities, such as
Cantabria and Galicia, cash cards or extraordinary aid were put into operation to
try to alleviate this problem to a minimum.
41
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The delay in the management and processing may cause additional problems
since, if the IMV is granted retroactively, the people currently receiving the
autonomous income will have to return the autonomous incomes they have
received during the months of administrative silence (in some cases they are
claiming amounts of €2,000) as they are incompatible with this type of income,
with the risk of becoming debtors of the public finances as they are people with
many needs.
6.2.2.
Lack of information and transparency
At the beginning of 2022, there are still no face-to-face consultation procedures
for IMV applicants by any means (neither by telephone, email or face-to-face
appointment). This disconnection place applicants in a situation of helplessness
and uncertainty about their situation, which conditions the application for aid that
would allow them to meet their basic needs.
The lack of information or clarification of decisions, both on refusals and amounts
granted, is another of the problems detected, and also a source of
defencelessness. Situations were detected in which the status of applications on
the website not been updated, or the messages are not clearly explained and are
not well understood as they are named with the administration's technical labels
(‘Cancelled’, ‘Denied due to inadmissibility’, ‘Duplicity study’, ‘Document
modification capture’, ‘Pending denial output’...). In short, the final criteria taken
into account for decisions and the amounts granted are not easily
understandable.
Many applicants receive requests for documentation, but others do not receive
them because the e-mail addresses used are from the consultants or the NGO
that helped them upload the application, or because they do not have access to
the Internet. Eventually, this results in the application being cancelled for failure
to provide the documentation. On the other hand, the administrative deadlines
for requests are in many cases not viable enough to guarantee the processing of
the requested documentation (10 days, at risk of being denied the benefit, with
most of the offices for direct face-to-face attention closed, or long waiting lists).
6.3. Coverage
6.3.1.
Accessibility obstacles and non-take-up
According to the territorial data of the IMV monitoring in the different
Autonomous Communities carried out internally by EAPN in December 2020 , in
42
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which the civil society organisations were asked about the degree of IMV
resolution, the following aspects were considered to explain both the non-takeup and lack of access to the IMV as well as the refusals of thousands of
applications: the digital divide affecting applicants; the educational and/or
language skills gap, which prevents them from understanding or leads them to
make mistakes when completing the online forms; the lack of clear information
on the processes and access from reliable or correctly informed informants; the
impossibility of having the required documentation or not being able to provide
it; the difficulty of accrediting the situation of the cohabitation unit (including the
irregular situation of one of the members); not having a home/dwelling clearly
associated with the cohabitation unit/family, and a broad casuistry on the
problems of census registration; not appearing as job seekers in the public
employment database; exceeding the maximum income and/or assets in the year
prior to the application, despite being in extreme poverty at the time of the
application; not fitting into the age range, despite being emancipated (not having
the capacity to prove it), among other excluding requirements. Some of these
aspects are explained in more detail below.
6.3.2.
Digital divide
The mechanisms for accessing benefits continue to be a challenge for many
families living in severe poverty.
The complexity of processing a benefit online for those with a greater digital
divide, whether due to difficulties in accessing the internet, a computer or
smartphone, or a lack of digital skills and a lower level of education, is one of the
reasons why people do not apply for the benefit, even if they meet the
requirements. As data from the National Institute of Statistics show, 41.4% of
people with a very low level of education have no or very low digital skills. This
percentage rises to 44% of those earning less than 900 euros per month. 21%
of people with a low level of education have no information skills, 28.3% have
no resolution skills and 40.1% have no computer skills. In the cases of
households earning less than 900 euros per month, these percentages are
somewhat lower with respect to information, communication, and resolution
skills, but higher with respect to lack of computer skills.
Table 18. Digital divide of individuals according to some of their socio-economic
characteristics, in percentages, 2021, in percentage
DIGITAL
SKILLS:
No Skills
NFORMATION
SKILLS: None
COMMUNICATION
SKILLS: None
RESOLUTION
SKILLS:
None
COMPUTER
SKILLS:
None
43
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and
level
Low
Education
completed:
Illiterate
and
incomplete
primary
education
41.4
21.4
16.4
28.3
40.1
Net
monthly
household
income:
Less
than
900 euros
44.1
13.6
9
20.7
42
Source: INE, Utilización de productos TIC por las personas. Personas de 16 a 74 años,
en: https://www.ine.es/jaxi/Datos.htm?tpx=32731
Telematic processing requires knowledge of office automation, ICT, availability
of a computer and internet access, which is often lacking among the most
vulnerable people and those at risk of social exclusion. In this sense, both the
processing of applications and the requests for refusals or corrections made
online without direct attention are often the most frequently reported obstacles.
At the beginning, accessibility to the IMV proved extremely difficult, perhaps due
to the large number of users on the website, with constant access crashes and
forcing the user to start the process and fill in the forms several times from the
beginning. The requirement to send documentation in digital format and in PDF
extensions in a box that had little or inadequate capacity for the purpose were
also obstacles for groups of people who had little or no knowledge of the use of
digital media, lack of digital means (computers, scanners, etc.), digital poverty
(no access to networks from home at the time of quarantine) and energy poverty.
In short, vulnerable people over 40 years old without digital training and without
their own network and terminals to make applications were initially the most
limited in terms of access.
6.3.3.
Lack of Internet access
Many households in poverty lack access to the Internet because they do not have
a broadband connection. Only 58.1% of households with an income of less than
900 euros per month have some kind of computer, compared to 97.4% of those
with an income of more than 2,500 euros per month, i.e. a gap of 39.3
percentage points.
Table 19. Availability of computing and telephony devices in dwellings according
to income level, 2021, in percentages
44
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
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Total Dweilli
ngs
Dwellings
with
some kind
of
computer
Dwellin
gs with
Internet
access
Dwellings
with
broadban
d
connectio
n
Dwellings
with
landline
telephone
Dwellings
with
a
mobile
phone
Net
monthly
household
income:
Less
than 900 euros
2,695,328
58.1
77.9
77.4
57.9
95.5
Net
monthly
household
income:
From
900 to less than
1,600 euros
4,952,780
76.7
90.5
90.2
70.1
98.4
Net
monthly
household
income:
1,600
to
less
than
2,500 euros
3,267,361
91.9
97.4
97.2
81.5
99.7
Net
monthly
household
income:
2,500
or more euros
2,765,923
97.4
99.2
99.1
89
99.9
39.3
21.3
21.7
31.1
4.4
Difference
between those
earning
2,500
euros or more
and
those
earning
less
than 900 euros
(percentage
points)
Fuente: INE, Resumen de datos de Viviendas por tamaño del hogar, hábitat, tipo de
hogar, ingresos mensuales netos del hogar y tipo de equipamiento,
en: https://www.ine.es/jaxi/Datos.htm?tpx=32664
6.3.4.
Lack of support networks
If the solution to the lack of connectivity, probably intersecting with the digital
divide, is face-to-face care, this was virtually impossible during the pandemic,
not even at the information level. The increasing provision of public services
digitally is effectively excluding many rural people: "The digitisation of health and
learning services in the wake of the pandemic may be exacerbating pre-existing
rural inequalities in access to and quality of these services, particularly
45
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
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disadvantageous for older people. In addition, the low take-up of Internet-based
information and communication services in rural areas may become an important
factor of social exclusion, given the increasing presence of the supply of such
services through digital means".
A major disincentive to claiming the benefit is the lack of a local support network
that could help with the process. Community Social Services could have
channelled or supported applications but were not trained or called into the
process. In addition, they have funding and human resource deficits, which are
compounded by the fact that face-to-face care was not offered for many months.
On the other hand, in the event that they could provide this support in person,
the social services are not connected with the people who handle the files at the
National Institute of Social Security, which also generates insecurities among the
workers themselves.
With regard to the social organisations, which are very present in the territory,
with more investment of resources and higher levels of face-to-face attention,
the situation of lack of prior training in the IMV, as well as the non-existence of
rapid consultation mechanisms with the National Institute of Social Security to
clear up doubts, have also generated many problems when it comes to helping
to process applications, generating processes of desistance on the part of
potential candidates for receiving it.
Distance from information centres, social security offices, organisations and
social services is another factor that discourages people who live in rural areas
and/or who have to incur costs in order to obtain information from them from
the centres.
6.3.5.
Difficulties with the required documentation
The provision of the required documentation is sometimes complicated by time
limits and/or overly bureaucratic and unwieldy procedures. Issues such as census
registration, accreditation of the composition of the family unit, not having
residence documents in order, can be complex for homeless people, extended
Roma families, immigrants, several cohabitation units in a single dwelling,
unmarried couples, etc.
One of the most important deficiencies in documentation is the lack of a bank
account. This is due to the fact that banks do not facilitate the opening of a ‘basic
account’, but also because many of these people have had their previous
accounts seized, are in legal proceedings, have high levels of indebtedness, or
have no way of providing the minimum level of income required.
46
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6.3.6.
Lack of understanding of instructions and procedures
Not having language competence in Spanish is a huge obstacle for immigrants.
So is having an intellectual or developmental disability, significant mental health
problems, or other serious disabling illnesses: these people face barriers that
may be insurmountable for them. Many full-time carers of dependent persons
also do not find the time to inform themselves about the resource and the
technicalities of the application.
6.3.7.
Other disincentives to apply
Among the factors that discourage people from applying for the IMV are those
related to the more "attractive" or "secure" nature of the regional minimum
incomes. In the cases of those Autonomous Communities where people can
choose, there are people who prefer them to the IMV, as it is a known benefit,
managed by the Social Services, or because it contains support actions within a
socio-occupational insertion itinerary (such as canteen supplements and school
support, housing support, etc., which are not currently offered in the national
framework).
Another group of people may be discouraged by the ‘imitation effect’, because
they know applicants who, being in the same or a worse situation than theirs,
were refused the application for the IMV. Because of this effect, they consider
that they would not be granted it either, so they give up applying for it.
Sometimes, there is uncertainty about the obligations of the beneficiaries when
receiving the benefit, so it is essential to provide clear information about the
considerations, obligations, and assumptions for the recipients.
6.4. Profiles of people in extreme poverty who do not
access the IMV
The most prominent group of people who do not qualify for the IMV are those in
"severe poverty", defined as those with an income of 40% or less of median
income, as calculated by EUROSTAT, the EU's statistical office. The government
targeted households whose annual income in the year preceding the application
puts them at 30% or less of the median income. With respect to this group
of people, the text of the Royal Decree-Law also refers to those in "severe
poverty" or "extreme poverty", which creates confusion, because it does not
follow the European criteria, but concentrates its action only on some 850,000
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households alone. Between using 40% or 30% of the median, there is a
difference of 875,000 households that are left out.
There are population groups that are excluded from the requirements for
obtaining the IMV. Among them are:
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
Immigrants in an irregular situation (it is enough for there to be one person
of the applicant’s family or ‘cohabitation unit’ in an irregular situation for the
administration to deny the IMV to everyone),
Refugees,
People under 23 years of age without children,
People who have a recent cohabitation unit,
People who live in institutions,
People who have property that is in their name but that they can neither use
nor sell (it appears as "patrimony" and is valued as if it were really liquidable),
People living in shared housing,
People living in settlements and other forms of homelessness, who find it
difficult to register.
In addition to these, there are all those who do not have the documents proving
some of the requirements available, or are waiting to obtain them, even from the
public administration.
6.4.1.
Roma population
The guarantee of the right to a Living Minimum Income among Roma families is
fundamental, considering that this is a group with a high incidence of extreme
poverty with a pronounced educational and digital gap, low participation in the
labor market, who often reside in shantytowns and highly vulnerable
neighborhoods.
The Report of the Fundación Secretariado Gitano on 8,042 applications for the
IMV by Roma people as of December 2020, concluded that the vast majority of
applications were still in process or not resolved, leaving most of the applicants
without basic economic coverage and in a complicated situation.
Only 1 out of every 10 Roma applicants was granted the IMV, 7.5% of the
applications were denied and the rest were pending resolution. Compared to the
national data of the same period, a lower percentage of Roma families were
granted the IMV.
In summary, two clear limitations were observed for access to the right on the
part of the Roma:
▪
The IMV criteria do not consider other very common casuistry in the Roma
community in terms of their family complexities (extended families in the
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▪
same household), problems of over-occupation of households, non-updated
registration situations or unregistered marriages.
Barriers of helplessness and access, including the digital divide and the lack
of knowledge and information for applicants to understand the resolutions and
procedures. All of this leads to uncertainty and fear of losing other benefits or
expecting compensations and obligations caused by the collection of the IMV,
which sometimes leads to the rejection of jobs for fear of incompatibility.
6.4.2.
Homeless population
Civil society organizations that work with homeless people are particularly
concerned that the coverage of the IMV should reach this group. Before the IMV,
barriers were identified in the functioning of the regional minimum income
schemes, and there is concern that the IMV excludes homeless people in practice
as well. According to the organization ‘Hogar Sí’, the fundamental obstacles that
exclude this right are the following:
▪
▪
Using census registration (‘registro del padrón municipal’) as a way of
accrediting residence, which is a IMV requisite. Although the Government
issued instructions recalling the obligation of the municipalities to register and
communicate changes in the census to people regardless of their residential
situation, in practice this bureaucratic requirement works as a barrier for
homeless people. In the same sense, registering as a job seeker is also a
complex bureaucratic procedure, since it depends on being registered with
the Social Security, a sometimes-complex hurdle for the homeless group.
The excessive weight of telematic mechanisms for the application for the IMV
deepens the digital divide and the limitations of internet access of this group.
6.4.3.
Young people under 23 year-old
Data from the Living Conditions Survey highlights the high figures of severe
material deprivation and severe poverty for the group of young people between
18 and 30. However, the IMV does not cover those below 23-year-old.
Civil society organisations such as the Youth Council of Spain consider that the
IMV is an unconstitutional instrument because it "arbitrarily discriminates"
against young people. On top of the age limit fixed on 23, people between 23
and 30 years of age are to prove three years of independent living’, as opposed
to the one year required from the age of 31. This is a paradoxical requirement,
since the younger group has greater difficulty in becoming emancipated: The
average age of emancipation in Spain is 29 years and to have been living
emancipated for at least 3 years is a requirement that excludes most of the
vulnerable youth.
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The text denounces that the IMV, since its entry into force, "has barely reached
young people, as can be seen from the data of the Ministry of Inclusion". In fact,
young people recipients under 23 were only 3,310 in May 2021 (1.3%, of the
benefits). In the next age bracket, 19.7% of the benefits were paid to persons
between 24 and 35 years of age.
6.5. IMV recipients and territorial distribution
Official IMV processing data for September 2021 showed that, of 1,453,652
applications submitted, 1,332,904 were valid, (91%) and 1,244,029 of the
applications submitted were processed (85.5%). 98.5% of the applications
processed were resolved and 1.5% are in the process of being rectified. Only
35.8% of the 2.3 million people initially planned are receiving the IMV, two years
after its entry into force.
According to an official update of 29 March 2022, the IMV reached 428,043
households, benefiting a total of 1.06 million people since it was launched. Of
these, 43% are minors, with a total of 456,000 children, which shows the impact
that the benefit is having on reducing child poverty. The number of adult
recipients of the Minimum Living Income exceeds 600,000. Of the total number
of beneficiary households, more than 200,000 are also beneficiaries of the "child
support supplement", an allowance of 100 euros per household per month for
children aged 0 to 3; 70 euros per month for each child aged 3 to 6, and 50 euros
per month for each child aged 6 to 18, which came into effect on 1 January. Since
the implementation of the benefit, the National Social Security Institute (INSS)
has received more than 1.7 million applications, of which 150,000 were
duplicates. Of the total number of valid applications, more than 92% have been
processed.34
Territorial differences were remarkable. In 2022, the implementation of the
Minimum Vital Income is uneven among the regions, with only three of them
exceeding 15%. The autonomous community with the highest coverage is
Andalucía, 29.44%. Behind it, the ranking places the Comunidad Valenciana,
11.54% and Comunidad de Madrid, 9.89% and Cataluña, 8.61%. At the bottom
of the table, and therefore with a lower degree of coverage -below 1 per centare the Autonomous Cities of Ceuta and Melilla, and the community of La Rioja.
34
Source:
La
Moncloa,
available
https://www.lamoncloa.gob.es/serviciosdeprensa/notasprensa/inclusion/Paginas/2022/290322ingresominimo.aspx
at:
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Graph 6. Distribution of IMV recipients by Autonomous Communities, March
2022, in percentage
Source:
La
Moncloa,
available
at:
https://www.lamoncloa.gob.es/serviciosdeprensa/notasprensa/inclusion/Paginas/20
22/290322-ingresominimo.aspx
6.6. Adequacy of IMV amounts in poverty reduction
The text of the Royal Decree-Law clarifies that the "main objective of the IMV
will be the reduction of poverty, especially extreme poverty, and the
redistribution of wealth. By ensuring a certain level of income regardless of place
of residence, this social security benefit will promote the effective equality of all
Spaniards". Article 3 states that "the benefit guarantees a minimum level of
income by covering the difference between the sum of the economic resources
of any kind available to the individual beneficiary or, where appropriate, to the
members of a cohabitation unit, and the amount of guaranteed income for each
case under the terms of Article 10".
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To calculate the amount to be received by the IMV, the difference between the
minimum income guaranteed by the IMV and the total income of the beneficiaries
must be taken into account. Thus, the amounts of the IMV for 2021, depending
on the different cohabitation units, are as follows:
Table 20. IMV amounts by composition of the living unit, in 2021
Euros
year
per
Euros
month
per
One adult person
5,639.20
469.93
One adult and one child
8,571.58
714.30
One adult and two children
10,263.34
855.28
One adult and three or more children
11,955.10
996.26
Two adults
7,330.96
610.91
Two adults and one child
9,022.72
751.89
Two adults and two children
10,714.48
892.87
Two adults and three or more children
12,406.24
1,033.85
9,022.72
751.89
Three adults and one child
10,714.48
892.87
Three adults and two or more children
12,406.24
1,033.85
Four adults
10,714.48
892.87
Four adults and one child
12,406.24
1.033.85
Three adults
Source: Social Security
The benefit is therefore targeted at people in extreme poverty, defined as those
living in households whose income per consumption unit is less than 30% of the
national median income. That is, with incomes below €4,813.02 per year or €401
per month by 2020. The proposed floor is insufficient to guarantee coverage of
basic needs, especially if housing and utility costs are to be met with these
amounts.
The adequacy for people in severe poverty is low unless it is complemented by
other types of assistance or support for families. The average IMV income in the
May 2021 payroll was €448.67 for a family unit comprising an average of 2.6
persons. However, there are marked territorial differences. The regions with the
lowest average income IMV are Extremadura, the Canary Islands and Castilla La
Mancha. On the other hand, Madrid, Navarra and Asturias are the Autonomous
Communities that have an IMV above €500.
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To assess the level of adequacy, it is necessary to consider the number of
beneficiaries per benefit, i.e. the composition of the "cohabitation unit" (as the
Royal Decree-Law calls it). 448.6 for an average household of 2.6 people means
that the average monthly benefit for each person is 172.5 euros, which is
insufficient to cover the most basic needs if there is no other income or support.
Due to the impact of the crisis in Ukraine and the increase in inflation, in 2022
the government updated these amounts (to be reviewed in next year's
Poverty Watch). For 2022 the monthly amounts are: 747.28 euros for a singleparent household consisting of one adult and one child. 894.77 euros for a singleparent household consisting of one adult and two children. 1,042.26 euros for a
single-parent household consisting of one adult and three minors.35
6.6.1.
Supplementary child allowance
One of the main novelties included in the recent Minimum Vital Income Law
(IMV)36 is the entry into force of the new supplementary allowance for children.
This allowance is intended for households with dependent minors and low
incomes, even if they are not recipients of the IMV, and is presented as “an
instrument to combat child poverty”.
It is available to recipients of the IMV and to low-income families, even if they
do not meet the requirements of the IMV but are ‘cohabitation units’ that are part
of the ‘Family Protection Programme’37 or that receive the old child allowance
(‘prestación por hijo a cargo’), which this new supplement replaces.
The amount is established considering the number of underage children in the
cohabitation unit, and according to the age on 1 January of the corresponding
year, in accordance with the following brackets (applied for the year 2022):
•
•
•
Under three years of age: 100 euros per month.
Over three years of age and under six years of age: 70 euros per month.
Over the age of six and under the age of 18.50 euros per month.
35
Seguridad
Social,
available
at:
https://www.segsocial.es/wps/portal/wss/internet/Trabajadores/PrestacionesPensionesTrabajadores/65850d68-8d064645-bde7-05374ee42ac7/cuantias#Cuantias
36
Ley 19/2021, del 20 de diciembre de 2021, por la que se establece el Ingreso Mínimo Vital. Available
at: https://www.boe.es/eli/es/l/2021/12/20/19/dof/spa/pdf
37
Defined as “beneficiaries of the financial allowance for a dependent child or minor without disability or
with a disability of less than 33%, whose living unit is made up exclusively of the members appearing in
the ‘dependent child benefit file’, provided that they meet the necessary conditions for access to the child
support supplement, and that the amount is equal to or greater than the amount they have been receiving,
and they must opt for one of the two benefits.”
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Those cohabitation units that include minors among their members, fulfil all the
necessary requirements for the concession of the minimum vital income (IMV)
and those established with respect to the maximum limits on computable income,
net worth and assets test may be entitled to this allowance. The supplement is
available to cohabitation units that meet two requirements:
•
•
They do not exceed 300% of the guaranteed income of the Minimum Vital
Minimum Income (IMV), and
They do not exceed 150% of the assets’ threshold corresponding to their type
of household (number of persons and age of those making up the household),
without taking into account the habitual residence, provided that it meets the
limit of non-corporate assets established for the cohabitation unit.
In terms of income, these requirements are specified in the following thresholds:
Table 21. Threshold for child allowance: 300% of the IMV guaranteed income
according to household composition
Number of cohabitation unit's members
Scale of increments
Threshold: 300% of
Guaranteed Income
(one adult alone
17,698.80 euro/year)
2
One adult and a child
1.3
23,008.44
3
One adult and two children
1.6
28,318.08
4
One adult and three children
1.9
33,627.72
5 or more
One adult and four or more
children
2.2
38,937.36
3
Two adults and one child
1.6
28,318.08
4
Two adults and two children
1.9
33,627.72
Two adults and three or
more children
2.2
38,937.36
Three adults and one child
1.9
33,627.72
5 or more
Three adults and two or
more children
2.2
38,937.36
5 or more
Four adults and one child
2.2
38,937.36
5 or more
4
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5 or more
Others
2.2
38,937.36
Source: Social Security
The above limits will be increased by 22% in the case of single-parent households
and/or with members suffering from disabilities.
Table 22. Threshold for child allowance: 150% of the net worth threshold
corresponding to the composition of the household.
Scale of
increments
150% of the net worth
threshold
One adult and a child
1.4
37,167.48
One adult and two children
1.6
47,786.76
One adult and three children
2.2
58,406.04
Two adults and one child
1.8
47,786.76
Two adults and two children
2.2
58,406.04
Two adults and three or more children
2.6
69,025.32
Three adults and one child
2.2
58,406.04
Three adults and two or more children
2.6
69,025.32
Four adults and one child
2.6
69,025.32
Others
2.6
69,025.32
Source: Social Security
The calculation is hard to do. To find out if a family is entitled to this supplement,
if they are not receiving the IMV, they must prove that they are "in a situation of
economic vulnerability". To do this, the person concerned can use the same IMV
online simulator provided by the National Social Security Institute (INSS):
https://imv.seg-social.es/
6.7. Testimonies of IMV recipients
These interviews were conducted during November and December 2021, 18
months after the first Royal Decree on the Ingreso Mínimo Vital.
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6.7.1.
Bureaucratic labyrinth
With regard to the application, a recurring theme is the "bureaucratic
labyrinth" among non-contributory benefits to be navigated. People experiencing
poverty have expressed the need for support in order to be able to apply for the
IMV. This support has usually been provided by civil society organisation in
order, among other things, to be able to know and understand the issue of
‘compatibility’:
-
“I went to the Social Security last year to ask them to please give me any
explanation about why I was receiving that amount, or what they think
belongs to me… But they told me ‘No’. That everything had already been said.
That I didn't need to do anything more, and that I would have to wait until I
got the amount I was entitled to, for a person on my terms". Daniela, 42 years
old, separated with three dependent children, lives in Burgos, Castilla y León.
The implementation of the IMV may give the impression of greater protection for
people in severe poverty, but due to the existence of an overlapping of benefits,
the opposite may be true as well. The IMV generated a labyrinth of red tape
and incompatibilities that confuses potential recipients. The long delays
(several months) generate confusion and unease, they do not know if they are
really going to receive the benefit or not, generating a situation of
defencelessness.
In this sense, the difficulties in accessing benefits increased due to the
restrictions on face-to-face assistance generated by the Covid-19 pandemic,
preventing claimants from carrying out face-to-face applications. Some
particularities, such as the change of residence between Autonomous
Communities, have further exacerbated the problem:
-
"It has been difficult when it comes to accessing the IMV, because of the
documentation they ask for, which is absurd. It took a long time to present it,
a long time to wait, and then they (the public administration) stated that you
were missing a piece of paper…. I'm telling you, they told you ‘No’, just when
you needed it the most. This makes you dizzy". Consuelo, woman, 33 years
old, family with five children (one daughter with 66% disability), La Rioja.
Regarding the lack of information for citizens, people in poverty interviewed by
EAPN Spain coincided in the fact that “the chaos in the social services generated
confusion and insecurity”. Information about the possibility of getting the IMV
came to them through support networks or family members (often inaccurate or
even wrong).
-
“But not because of the difficulty we had in presenting the documentation,
but because of the way they handled it, the ‘bad service’. You go to ask, and
nobody knows, they send you from one to another and nobody knows. And
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the people answering the available telephone numbers, each one gives you a
different answer; there isn’t one way to follow. I went (to the social services)
to ask when the first payment arrived because I didn't understand the
amount, where that amount came from, and not even at the Social Security
were able to give me an explanation. They told me that they would call me
back and informed me of the amount, but I am still waiting for the call".
Consuelo, woman, 33 years old, family with five children (one daughter with
66% disability), La Rioja.
-
"(...) My cousin was the one who told me, but I didn't know that the Mínimo
Vital was for ever, I thought it was an emergency help in the COVID section.
But no, it was, it took away the ‘ICASS’ (regional minimum income of
Cantabria). And they substituted the ‘ICASS’ for the ‘Vital’ (IMV). And it also
substituted what it is for dependent children, I didn't know that either.”
-
“So… nobody informed you? only your cousin?” (Interviewer)
-
“No, only my cousin because she saw it on the panel, but nobody gave me
any information about these things". Pilar, woman, 30 years old, with a
dependent child and a single-parent household, Cantabria.
In addition to misinformation, there is a lack of information on the part of
the administration to manage the IMV, paralysing the management of the
former benefits and leaving some applications blocked without the applicants
having the information to be able to solve the situation.
-
“Yes, and they (the administration) didn't send me anything. I went to ask
what was going on, why I was not receiving the amount that was allocated to
people under my conditions and so on... That was when they looked at it and
told me that 'here we have a DNI (personal identification document) that
needs to be fixed’, which is that of my youngest child. That was two years
ago. Daniela, 42 years old, separated with three young children, lives in
Burgos, Castilla y León.
6.7.2.
Protection provided by the IMV
Among the persons interviewed, there are a number of different cases:
•
Recipients who do not cash the benefit for fear that they will have to
pay it back. This is the case of an interviewee from Extremadura, aged 43,
with a dependent child, who receives the IMV via the ‘passerelle’ with the
regional minimum income. She is granted 585 euros but decided not to use it
for "fear of being fined or being sued", as she is currently living on a lower
amount of unemployment benefit.
•
Recipients who receive less than they expected:
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o
o
o
o
A woman with three dependent children, victim of gender-based
violence, in Castilla y León. She expected an amount of 900 euros and
received 677 euros. Currently, the IMV is her only source of income,
plus 100 euros every two months from the father of her eldest child as
a pension.
A 54-year-old man from Ceuta, unemployed, with a wife and 2
children, who -according to the simulator- was entitled to 876 euros
and ended up receiving 108 euros. The IMV is the same for him as the
dependent child allowance he received before.
A 30-year-old woman from Cantabria, with a dependent child, who
receives 671 euros of IMV, a lower amount than the regional income
she received before.
A 33-year-old woman from La Rioja, married, with 5 children, who
receives 667 euros of IMV, when she expected to receive between 900
and 1,000 euros (they are a large family). She waited 8 months for
the benefit. During this time, the regional government stopped the
regional minimum income, so she became incomeless.
The protective intensity of the Minimum Vital Income is insufficient for the
families interviewed. In general, they had higher expectations of the benefit. The
Social Security does not explain the reason for the amounts granted, but it is
assumed that, in addition to possible errors, they are due to the calculation of
the income of ‘a year ago’ and do not correspond to the situation of vulnerability
that the families are currently living in.
6.7.3.
Labour and social integration pathways
There is a general lack of knowledge among IMV recipients as to whether or not
they are on an integration pathway. Some say they do not even know what this
is. The "tangle" of services and resources means that they do not clearly identify
what is compulsory or what is not, or even who (local, regional, national
administration) is responsible for it. The differences between the additional
resources in the different autonomous communities make it hard to know the
real support from the administration. The following dialogue shows how hard it
is for an individual to identify the source of the aid and, at the same time, the
way to get different types of it.
-
“No, the Red Cross has helped me to buy glasses for my children, to buy
textbooks and school materials.”
“Have they helped you, have you not asked for the Red Cross programme?”
(Interviewer)
“Not until today, they gave me the aid once.”
“From social services, are you receiving food?” (Interviewer)
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-
“Yes, from the Food bank; they had given me food last year, also clothing.
¿Am I getting the IMV? Yes, yes. Clothing and basic needs for the children?
Yes.". Mario, two children, Ceuta.
When asked about other benefits or aid, they usually mention the services they
receive from civil society organisation to pay for their housing utilities, education
or food needs, among others.
Families do not seem to identify “the
administration” as a support or companion in their situation of vulnerability, but
simply as a provider of resources and benefits. Sometimes, this is not accurate.
-
-
“I have been here for a year I have a ‘social rent’ that ‘Burgos Acoge’ (a CSO)
helped me to process. Because in 2018 I entered a ‘system’ -well it sounds
very ugly- for women suffering from gender-based violence… And there I
applied for housing, but so far I haven't had a response either. So... I don't
know. I received this benefit". Daniela, 42 years old, separated with three
dependent children, lives in Burgos, Castilla y León.
“We have an educator and a job because we have requested it, for work and
curriculum reasons, so that the children can go to leisure groups and have
guidance on what to do. But not because they imposed it, but because we
asked for it ourselves. It was not offered to us, but we asked for it because of
the situation with our big teenage son. We asked for help, and we got help for
the whole house. The social worker accompanies us". Consuelo, woman, 33
years old, family with five children (one daughter with 66% disability), La
Rioja.
6.7.4.
EAPN recommendations
The UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Olivier De
Schutter, referred to the IMV as "a great example of how to develop an inclusive
approach to tackling poverty and inequality". He indicated that "It is essential
that the scheme is designed to reach as many people in need as possible" and
that, to do so, "eligibility conditions should not exclude particularly vulnerable
people, such as undocumented or newly documented migrants, newly
emancipated youth formerly in public care, homeless or permanently homeless
people, or people with ‘uncertified’ disabilities who are unable to work". De
Schutter warned that bureaucratic hurdles could be a major obstacle for people
in poverty who depend on government assistance for their survival and finally
proposed that "developing a robust scheme that allows sufficient flexibility when
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people experiencing extreme
documentation requirements". 38
poverty
cannot
easily
comply
with
all
According to the document of the Council for the Approval of the National
Recovery and Resilience Plan for Spain, legislation to reorganise and simplify the
system of non-contributory cash benefits is scheduled to come into force in the
last four months of 2023: "The reform will reorganise and simplify the system of
non-contributory cash benefits. The aim of the reform is to incorporate those
main non-contributory benefits provided by the Social Security to the IMV, in
order to reorganise and simplify the system of non-contributory financial benefits
in line with the objectives of the Plan ". This commitment document stated that
by 31 March 2024 "the effectiveness of integration pathways for people receiving
the minimum living income" should be completed. This is currently going on
through 18 pilot projects, which will then be analysed for their effectiveness. Civil
society organisations -among them EAPN Spain, EAPN Castilla La-Mancha and
EAPN Canarias- are be involved in some of these projects.
6.8. Recommendations regarding the IMV
1. Extend the coverage and increase the amounts
EAPN Spain stresses the need to extend the target group to people in severe
poverty, extending the calculation from 30% of median income to 40% of median
income, as calculated by EUROSTAT. This will imply the inclusion of more than
875,000 households in severe poverty.
The protective intensity and benefit amounts should be further extended to adapt
them to these population groups. The amounts should also be updated in line
with rising inflation and the cost of public services. In 2022, some positive steps
were taken in this direction.
2. Improve the application process
EAPN Spain recommends that the IMV application and proceedings incorporate
clear information, in simplified terminology, aimed at both potential applicants
and recipients. This information should refer to rights and obligations (to reduce
the anxiety produced by the lack of knowledge and the fear of possible
38
UN expert urges Spain to expand coverage and eligibility for minimum living income, 3 June 2020,
available
at
https://www.ohchr.org/SP/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25921&LangID=S.
60
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
sanctions). Training should also be provided to social services and civil society
organisations’ workers, who are dealing with vulnerable groups and who are
likely to claim the benefit.
There is an urgent need to review accessibility so that the benefit is truly inclusive
and does not leave families in poverty behind precisely because of social
exclusion factors such as lower educational attainment, lack of digital skills and
access to digital resources, difficulty in documenting their situation at the
administrative level.
3. Take positive and proactive actions to minimise the digital divide
The digital divide does not disappear spontaneously, it is necessary to carry out
educational actions targeted at the groups that suffer most from it and adapted
to their circumstances. The use of technical language, the assumption of prior
knowledge, etc. is unreasonable because the statistics rightly indicate that almost
half of the people targeted will not understand or will understand incompletely.
For this reason, the accessibility of the main telematic channel should be
reviewed, so that it respects the criteria of "easy reading" established, for
example, in portals such as Discapnet39 or similar.
It is necessary to establish free online training for access, with language that is
accessible and adapted to the digital divide, i.e. without taking any terms,
concepts or procedures for granted.
Additional walk-in application points in Social Security offices should be
reinforced until at least 80% of the expected quota of applications has been
reached.
With regard to rural areas, the social measures included in Axis 8 of the
Government's Plan of Measures to Meet the Demographic Challenge should be
fully developed, allowing for the reinforcement of the social network, the fight
against the digital and educational divide, and the promotion of access to rights
for residents, especially in the most vulnerable situations, to benefits such as the
IMV: the creation of a network of small municipalities and areas at demographic
risk for equal treatment, inclusion and diversity; the plan for support and longterm care (deinstitutionalisation, equipment and technology) and, in particular,
the Plan for the modernisation of social services, based on technological
39
https://www.discapnet.es/vida-independiente/accesibilidad-de-comunicacion
61
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
transformation, innovation, training and reinforcement of childcare, "leaving no
one behind".40
4. Extending access to other groups in severe poverty
There are some population groups that are still not included in the requirements
for obtaining the IMV, such as immigrants in an irregular situation, refugees,
people under 23 years of age without children, etc. In addition, it should be
remembered that the application requirements have been tightened for people
who do not form a cohabitation unit and for unmarried couples. These groups
have higher risks of being at severe poverty and EAPN Spain recommends that
are included within the IMV.
In order to include homeless people, EAPN Spain recommends that, in order to
access the benefit, the housing solutions that vulnerable people find to cope with
their situation of residential exclusion should be taken into account, with a flexible
and realistic perspective.
5. Making processing more agile and transparent
As a clear recommendation arising from the study published by EAPN Spain in
December 2021, it is essential to streamline the processing of the MVI quickly
and transparently, avoiding unnecessary delays and complexities.
6. Facilitating access to alternative income in the event of a refusal to
grant IMV
It is necessary to improve the application and award systems, achieving shorter
deadlines and increasing the level of transparency and information with regard
to the amounts allocated, especially in the case of transfers of Autonomous
Community Income, the reasons for refusal and the provision of complaints
processes, while promoting accessible and understandable language in line with
the socio-economic profile of applicants and beneficiaries.
EAPN Spain recommends that speeding up the granting of the IMV with realistic
timeframes that do not further expose the most vulnerable population to risk
situations should be a priority.
40
Ministerio para la Transición Ecológica y el Reto Demográfico, Plan de Medidas del Gobierno ante el
Reto Demográfico. Eje 8, (BIENESTAR SOCIAL Y ECONOMÍA DE LOS CUIDADOS), página 100. Disponible
en:
https://www.miteco.gob.es/es/reto-demografico/temas/medidas-retodemografico/plan_recuperacion_130_medidas_tcm30-524369.pdf
62
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
7. Steps forward
During 2021 and the first half of 2022, EAPN Spain has been advocating for a
wider territorial coverage of the MVI; the calculation of the current family income
(not the previous year's income) to access the benefit; the extension of the child
allowance to combat child poverty; and the updating of the benefit’s amounts.
All these requests have been achieved, which is a step in the right direction on
the part of the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, on which the
IMV depends.
63
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
64
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
Our Networks and Member Organisations
19 Territorial Networks
EAPN-Illes Balears-Xarxa per la Inclusió Social ● Red Andaluza de Lucha contra la Pobreza y la Exclusión Social ● Red
Aragonesa de Entidades Sociales para la Inclusión ● Red Europea contra la Pobreza y la Exclusión Social en Castilla y
León ● Red Europea de Lucha contra la Pobreza y la Exclusión social en Asturias ● Red Europea de Lucha contra la
Pobreza y la Exclusión Social de Canarias ● Red Europea de Lucha contra la Pobreza y la Exclusión Social en Castilla-La
Mancha ● Red Europea de Lucha contra la Pobreza y la Exclusión Social en Euskadi ● Red Madrileña de Lucha contra la
Pobreza y la Exclusión Social ● Red de Lucha contra la Pobreza y la Exclusión Social de la Región de Murcia ● Red
Europea de Lucha contra la Pobreza y la Exclusión Social de Extremadura ● Red Europea de Lucha contra la Pobreza y la
Exclusión Social de Melilla ● Red Europea de Lucha contra la Pobreza y la Exclusión Social en Cantabria ● Red Europea
de Lucha contra la Pobreza y la Exclusión Social en Ceuta ● Red Europea de Lucha contra la Pobreza y la Exclusión Social
en el Estado Español de la Comunidad Autónoma de Galicia ● Red Europea de Lucha contra la Pobreza y la Exclusión
Social en La Rioja ● Red Navarra de Lucha contra la Pobreza y la Exclusión Social ● Taula d´Entitats del Tercer Sector
Social de Catalunya ● Xarxa per la Inclusió social de la Comunitat Valenciana
And 19 national Organisations:
Accem ● Acción Contra el Hambre ● Cáritas Española ● Comisión Española de Ayuda al Refugiado (CEAR) ●
Confederación de Centros de Desarrollo Rural (COCEDER) ● Confederación Española de Personas con Discapacidad
Física y Orgánica (COCEMFE) ● Cruz Roja Española ● Federación de Mujeres Progresistas (FMP) ● Fundación ADSIS ●
Fundación CEPAIM ● Fundación Cruz Blanca ● Fundación Esplai ● Fundación Secretariado Gitano ● Hogar Sí ●
Movimiento por la Paz (MPDL) ● Organización Nacional de Ciegos Españoles (ONCE) ● Plena Inclusión ● Provivienda
● Unión Española de Asociaciones y Entidades de Atención al Drogodependiente (UNAD)
Red Europea de Lucha contra la Pobreza y la Exclusión Social
65
EAPN ES – EAPN Spain
Calle Tribulete 18, 28012, Madrid, Spain.
Web: https://www.eapn.es/
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