Europe warns that Spain combats child poverty “little and badly”

Spain, according to data from Brussels, is one of the countries with the highest number of minors at risk of poverty or social exclusion. “The risk rate of child poverty in Spain exceeds 27%,” reflects the European Union in its report ‘Investing in childhood’. It is the highest figure in the entire community together with that of Bulgaria and Romania. 10.5 percentage points above the European average (16.5%) and 16 percentage points of the lowest rate (11%) set by Denmark, Finland and Slovenia. “We have made important efforts to combat child poverty,” highlights the European report.

In its founding treaty, the European Union establishes the protection of the rights of children and childhood as one of the guiding principles of the community club, which is reflected in Article 3 of the Treaty of the European Union. Years later, this defense increased when the need to adopt appropriate measures to ensure that children receive the necessary care, assistance, education and training was written into the European Social Charter.

Requests that have been expressed over the years in financial aid, relief and subsidies. “Our study confirms great heterogeneity in quantity, composition and distribution,” point out the conclusions of the authors of the European research. These state transfers, according to the study, range from 3.2% of GDP per capita in Ireland to 12% of GDP per capita in Austria. “They depend on different combinations of policies, although aid at the time of childbirth or raising children normally predominates,” they point out.

In this case, Spain is the third country of the group of 27 with the least spending on child-rearing aid compared to per capita income. Furthermore, the study reveals that, together with the Portuguese one, the Spanish tax and benefit system is the most inefficient in reducing poverty among the youngest.

Specifically, aid per child in Spain represents 4.1% of GDP per capita, very far from Austria (12%) and Poland (11.6%) and only ahead of Greece (4%) and Ireland (3.2%). Furthermore, the document reveals that aid is growing, but only in the section intended for the richest 10%, which rose by 0.02% compared to GDP per capita in the period 2019-2022. In the case of those aimed at the poorest 10%, these have not changed.

In fact, although the margin of difference is very small, the richest 10% receive more aid per child on average than the poorest 10%. “This is because child benefits are not subject to an income limit,” the investigation denounces. In the Spanish case, these benefits are usually linked to requirements such as large families or disability and in the case of tax reductions it is the highest incomes who take advantage, the lowest ones already have reduced tax obligations.

Poorly designed

In its analysis, the European Commission not only focuses on the recipients, but also on the conception and design of this aid. “70% of aid in Spain is not aimed at reducing poverty,” the study concludes. In their assessment, the researchers consider that only 1 in 10 state transfers are well designed and seek to reduce child poverty.

An architecture that “only manages to reduce the so-called AROPE rate (group of people at risk of poverty and/or social exclusion) for minors by 4.76 points.” Within those 4.76 points, 1.34 correspond to child benefits, 1.96 to minimum income and 1.46 to tax credits.

Last October, the OECD recommended that Spain’s social aid “be directed to those most in need, especially low-income families with children.”