The minimum vital income reaches almost one million people: a third live in Andalusia and 41% are minors

In Spain there are 964,787 people who currently benefit in some way from the minimum vital income (IMV), the subsistence income that the Government introduced in 2020 to guarantee a minimum income to the most vulnerable households.. This population is divided into almost 400,000 homes (376,073), the majority with the presence of minors and a third of them are located in Andalusia.. However, the aid does not reach, by any means, all the households it could theoretically reach: around 58% do not even ask for it.. The benefit, which does not require having contributed in order to receive it, represents a cost to the public coffers of 946 million euros per month.

This is clear from the new statistics on this benefit presented this Thursday by the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration. Until now, the Government only gave the number of people who had received this benefit at some point, a figure that did not really reflect with true precision how many people are currently registered, which has sparked multiple criticisms of the Executive.

With the new statistics released this Thursday, it can be seen how, of the 2.3 million people who have received aid at some point since it was launched in 2020, 27% no longer receive it.. Social Security sources believe that to a large extent these are people who have improved their income, probably by finding employment and who, therefore, no longer meet the requirements to be able to access aid.

On average, registered households receive an income of 500 euros per month in 12 annual payments, which translates into 167 euros per person. Of course, this calculation also includes people who only receive the supplement for child support, a subsidy that is within the universe of the IMV, but is not as substantial as the minimum income per se.. Furthermore, it is important to remember that the minimum vital income is granted to the cohabitation unit and guarantees a level of income that varies depending on the composition of the households.. The aid ranges from 604 euros per month for a household made up of a single adult and the most extreme case, that of a family made up of two adults and three or more dependent minors, which can receive up to 1,595 euros.. The previous income available to these households is deducted from the minimum vital income when calculating the amount of the benefit.

If we also count the households that receive only the child support supplement, the number of families in the IMV universe rises to 557,405. These households can be divided into three groups of very similar proportions.. The first is made up of 181,075 households that do not receive child protection aid, a supplement that reinforces income based on the number of minor children.. Then, there is a second group of 194,998 families that receive the IMV with assistance for children and a third group of 181,332 that only receives the complement.

The majority of potential beneficiaries do not charge it

The great weak point of the minimum vital income is the low coverage rates it has if we think about the potential beneficiaries.. Although the Government does not comment on an updated figure of how many people could theoretically qualify for aid, Social Security sources accept Airef's calculations as good, which put 58% of the households that requested it with respect to the possible universe.

Coverage rates are especially low in households without children, where more than 70% of potential beneficiaries do not claim aid. This non-request problem, known as non take-up in technical jargon, is common in this type of service and has various reasons.

The reasons why aid is not requested are varied and range from errors when defining the potential beneficiaries, to the lack of incentives to request aid among vulnerable households with higher income or the overlap with other minimum incomes such as the case of the autonomous. From Social Security they point out that “an important part of the cases” of lack of coverage are due to the few economic incentives to request help.. “Households with income close to the threshold or in a situation of temporary poverty may lack economic motivation to apply for the benefit, given that the increase in income would be limited and would not exceed the perceived cost and effort of the application process,” they point out.

Homes with children

At a sociodemographic level, two out of every three holders of the minimum vital income are women, while 82% are people of Spanish nationality.. In addition, two thirds of households include minors. The average age of those who have requested aid is around 45 years old, but the beneficiaries are much younger: 41% of them are minors, which explains why the recipients—unlike the holders—are, on average, 28 years old. .

At the territorial level, the autonomous community with the most weight in the minimum vital income is Andalusia, where 32.6% of the families that receive the aid are registered.. After Andalusia appear the Valencian Community (10.5%), Catalonia (10.3%), Madrid (8%) or Murcia (5%). The other side of the coin are communities like La Rioja, Cantabria, Navarra or the Balearic Islands, which barely contribute 1% each. In this sense, it is important to highlight that the autonomous minimum income policy of each community has a lot of influence here.