The Spanish government on Tuesday has put forward the idea of a universal childcare allowance to eradicate child poverty, but the €200 per month benefit would be available to all families if the measure is approved.
The Spanish government has approved the updated objectives of the 2030 Sustainable Development Strategy, which includes a universal childcare allowance for all families with children, seeking to eradicate the most severe child poverty by 2030.
It also seeks to combat problems such as access to housing and the gender pay gap.
This is the first time the government has incorporated this universal childcare allowance into a national strategy.
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The ultimate goal is to provide aid of up to €200 per month (€2,400 per year) for each child under 18 to help ease the financial burden on families and incentivise them to have children, as well as to reduce child poverty.
According to estimates from the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, this financial support would reduce child poverty by 50 percent and, in the remaining 50 percent, reduce its severity by 40 percent.
The latest Living Conditions Survey from Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE) indicates that more than a third of the population of Spain under 16 is at risk of poverty, the highest rate in the last decade.
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In a press conference following the Council of Ministers meeting, the Minister for Social Rights Pablo Bustinduy said he hopes this measure can “be implemented as soon as possible”.
“Child poverty remains at very high levels,” he noted, indicating that the best way to eradicate it is through a benefit like “the one that already exists in 17 countries within the European Union,” he added.
According to UNICEF, countries that already have a similar benefit include Austria, Hungary, Slovenia and Latvia.
UNICEF states that child benefits lift more than 270,000 children and adolescents out of vulnerable situations if the aid is €100 per month.
If this amount were doubled, as the government’s junior coalition partner Sumar is demanding, it would mean lifting more than half a million children in the country (around 530,000) out of poverty.
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This is just part of the new sustainable development strategy developed by the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs and Agenda 2030, which consists of 100 measures to strengthen the welfare state and guide public policies.
Spain’s leftist coalition government has not managed to get its budget approved for the past three years, making the introduction of this universal childcare allowance far from a reality yet.
The draft, if made into law, would also push compliance with the European Child Guarantee — a wider programme to combat the social exclusion of minors — and the extension of child support to Spain’s pre-existing minimum income benefit (IMV).
In the EU, 19 of the 27 member states had a universal child benefit in 2024, although with different amounts.
Another key objective of the Sustainable Development Strategy is to improve access to housing. To achieve this, public investment is to be tripled to €7 billion over the next four years.
Minister Pablo Bustinduy has repeatedly described Spain’s lack of such a measure as an “anomaly”.
Spain is the EU member state with the least capacity to reduce child poverty through aid, UNICEF has highlighted. The organisation has criticised the fact that Spain only invests 1.5 percent of GDP in social protection for children and families, compared to the European average of 2.4 percent.
