The agreement on the unemployment benefit reform sees the light after weeks of friction between the Ministries of Labor and Economy. This Tuesday, the Government approved changes that expand the coverage of this aid to the unemployed, increase its amount to 570 euros per month during the first six months of benefit and make it compatible with employment.. “It is a very important reform for our country,” defended the second vice president and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, in the press conference after the Council of Ministers.

The reform leaves behind the 480 euros per month at which the unemployment benefit currently stands, an aid to which unemployed people who meet certain income requirements can qualify once the contributory benefit has been exhausted. Instead, the amount of the subsidy rises to 570 euros per month during the first six months of receipt and to 540 during the following six months, to subsequently remain at 480 euros for the remaining time until its extinction, which remains at a ceiling. 30 months. “We expanded and improved the amount of the subsidy,” stressed Díaz, who also pointed out that the process to access the aid has been simplified.

In this way, the initial agreed amount represents 95% of the Iprem – it is the reference indicator for setting aid and subsidies and is currently 600 euros per month – and is reduced after six months to 90% of the indicator, compared to the 80% which represents the current amount. The reform establishes precisely these percentages on the Iprem, so that if the index rises, so will the aid.

The figure set at the beginning of receiving the benefit is somewhat more modest than what the Ministry of Labor proposed in its original design, which proposed reaching 660 euros during the first six months and then dropping to 540 and 480 euros.. On the other hand, Economía suggested increasing the aid to 600 euros per month at first, and then reducing it quarterly to 480, 390 and 300 euros.

Therefore, the final configuration of the reform is located at an intermediate point between the approaches of the Díaz and Calviño departments, whose clash has delayed the negotiation of the changes in recent weeks.. The second vice president has downplayed the importance of the discrepancies and has stated that “those who have won today are the Spanish.” The modification of the unemployment benefit is precisely one of the milestones required by Brussels for the disbursement of the fourth payment of the European funds of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. “It is a commitment that we have with the European Commission, but above all with our country,” recalled the Minister of Labor, who stressed the Government's commitment to “expanding labor rights.”

More beneficiaries

Beyond the amount, the reform also introduces changes in the potential beneficiaries of the subsidy. Specifically, the scope of the aid is extended to those under 45 years of age without family members – until now they were excluded – as well as to temporary agricultural workers from outside Andalusia and Extremadura and to cross-border workers who go to work daily Ceuta and melilla.

“We incorporated three more groups that were being excluded,” Díaz explained.. Sources from the Ministry of Labor point out that this expansion will incorporate some 400,000 more unemployed people into the system. “Not only do we not cut aid, but we substantially expand coverage,” the second vice president insisted, at the same time that she urged the PP to vote in Congress in favor of this reform “in the interest of the Spanish people.”

Compatible with employment

Another significant change is the fact that this aid to the unemployed will be compatible with employment during the first 180 days of benefit, in order to combine the receipt of the subsidy with working life.. The second vice president has stressed that this compatibility is “key” on dates like these, in the middle of the Christmas campaign and in the run-up to sales, when there are unemployed people who face the dilemma of accepting a job for a few days and having to give up the subsidy or refuse to work to continue receiving aid. “This is corrected today,” said Díaz, who has defended that social protection encourages the search for employment, against voices critical of this type of aid to the unemployed.

In addition, the reform also eliminates the month of waiting that was established between the end of the contributory unemployment benefit and the beginning of the subsidy, a period of time that the Minister of Labor has stated works as a kind of “punishment” towards workers. beneficiaries, by interrupting the receipt of aid. The modification approved this Tuesday solves this point, allowing the unemployment benefit to be collected immediately once the contributory benefit ends.

The Minister of Labor has stated that unemployment benefits are an “especially feminist” policy with a great gender impact, since more than 56% of the people who receive it are women.. Furthermore, outside of the unemployment benefit reform, the Government has also approved this Tuesday the generalization of breastfeeding leave up to a cumulative maximum of 28 days for all workers, regardless of whether or not they have it included in their collective agreement.