The government has put forward a new subsidy of €200 per month for each child under the age of 18, known as the universal child benefit. It is still a political proposal, not a right in force, but it is already included as an explicit objective in the 2030 Sustainable Development Strategy approved by the Council of Ministers, and the Executive has set it as a “strategic goal” in its fight against child poverty and the collapse of the birth rate.
The basic idea is simple: to pay €200 per month for each child under the age of 18 in a family’s care, i.e., €2,400 per year per child. It would be a universal benefit, similar in logic to public health or education: it would reach 100% of households with children, with no income limits or contribution requirements, and would be compatible with other benefits such as the Minimum Living Income or existing Social Security benefits. A family with two children, for example, could receive €4,800 per year; with three, €7,200, provided that the measure is approved in the terms proposed.
According to calculations by the Ministry of Social Rights and various reports cited by the government, the cost of the benefit would be around €18-19 billion per year, about 2.7% of public spending, which would require it to be included in future budgets with a more redistributive tax reform. Therefore, although the design is already fairly well defined, its implementation still depends on the executive branch obtaining sufficient parliamentary support and agreeing on how to finance it.
Objectives: reducing child poverty and improving the birth rate
Editorial credit: Angelo Cordeschi | shutterstock.com
The universal child benefit has a dual purpose. The first is to drastically reduce child poverty and alleviate the cost of having children in a country where almost a third of minors live in households at risk of poverty or social exclusion. According to the government, this type of assistance could halve the most severe child poverty and reduce the AROPE (at risk of poverty and exclusion) rate by several points, which currently places Spain among the worst countries in the EU in terms of this indicator.
Organizations such as UNICEF and various academic studies have been advocating for years for a universal child allowance as the most effective tool for rapidly improving the standard of living of minors, because it reaches all families, simplifies procedures, and prevents vulnerable households that do not meet very restrictive income or contribution requirements from being left out. In addition, the government is framing the measure as part of a broader strategy to support parenting and work-life balance, longer parental leave, extended birth leave, and strengthening early childhood education from 0 to 3 years of age, with the idea that reducing the economic and care burden can also help to slow the decline in the birth rate.
Who could receive it and what remains to be specified
On paper, all families with children under the age of 18 who are legally resident in Spain and registered with the local authorities would be eligible, including single-parent families, reconstituted families, adoptive families, families with children in care, and unaccompanied migrants under the protection of the authorities. The documentation required would be the usual for this type of benefit: family book or guardianship resolution, ID card or foreigner identification number of parents and minors, and certificate of registration, among others.
However, it should be noted that, for the time being, the benefit has not been approved by law or published in the Official State Gazette, so it cannot yet be applied for or collected. The 2030 Strategy sets the benefit as an objective and outlines its main features, but the regulatory framework has yet to be developed: which body will manage it, how it will be applied for (whether it will be automatic or require processing), when it will start to be paid, and whether it will be implemented progressively by income bracket or age.