The Spanish government is planning new financial support for families: parents could in future receive €200 per month for each child under the age of 18. This amounts to €2,400 per year per child. The main aim of the measure is to combat child poverty and ease the financial burden on families.
Spain Press Editorial Team
Universal Benefit Without an Income Limit
According to current plans, the new child benefit would be available to all families with children under the age of 18, regardless of their income or the parents’ employment status. This would mark the first time Spain introduces a nearly universal family benefit, similar to those that already exist in many other European countries.
The likely requirements would be:
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a legal residence in Spain,
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registration in the local municipal register (Empadronamiento), and
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the relevant family and identification documents.
The payment would be made monthly and on a per-child basis. A family with two children could therefore receive around €400 per month, or €4,800 per year.
No Start Date yet
There is currently no specific start date. Although the government has already presented the measure as part of its Sustainable Development Strategy up to 2030, the actual implementation still requires approval of the funding and legal framework.
Originally, the benefit was supposed to be approved as part of the state budget. However, due to political disagreements in Parliament, funding is still being sought. Only after that can a decision be made on when the payments will actually begin.
Billions in Costs for the State
The planned child benefit would be one of Spain’s largest social programmes. It is estimated that there are currently around eight million children under the age of 18 in the country. If each of them were to receive €200 per month, the cost would be approximately €19 billion per year.
Fight Against Child Poverty
The initiative is driven by the comparatively high levels of child poverty in Spain. Reports indicate that almost one in three children in the country lives below the poverty line or is at risk of social exclusion. With the new benefit, the government aims to significantly improve this situation while also stabilising the country’s low birth rate.
If the law is passed, Spain could for the first time introduce a comprehensive universal child benefit – a step that many other European countries have already implemented for years.
