Oxfam backs Iglesias’ call for minimum monthly income

Unidas Podemos' Pablo Iglesias, 2nd V-P in coalition gov't, speaking to reporters. Photo: Óscar Cañas / Europa Press
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Oxfam Intermón, the Spanish affiliate of the UK-based international aid agency Oxfam, has called on Spain to establish a guaranteed monthly income of at least 590 euros per family per month that it says would help to lift as many as four million Spaniards out of poverty.

The NGO’s support for a guaranteed monthly household income comes in the wake of a pledge made earlier this month by the Socialist-led coalition government’s 2nd Vice-President and Minister for Social Rights, Pablo Iglesias, that the new government will guarantee the right to a minimum income for all households in Spain.

► News Sources: Europa Press, El Mundo and El Correo Gallego …

Oxfam Intermón’s proposed base income of 590 euros as a guarantee for all households in Spain would only amount to an equivalent of 30 percent of the average monthly wage in Spain. But, the agency is proposing additional family supplements per dependent child that would range from 100 euros per child for households living in relative poverty to 150 euros per child per month for single-parent families or those households experiencing severe poverty.

Iglesias told a congressional committee earlier this month that the coalition government’s proposed guaranteed monthly income would see payments to families living in poverty made through the country’s national Social Security system.

In his remarks before Congress, Iglesias said that the level of poverty in Spain is “unacceptable for the fourth-largest economy in the euro zone”, citing figures showing that despite the country’s economic recovery income distribution in Spain remains among the most inequitable in Europe, while as many as 10 million Spaniards, or 21.5 percent of the population, are living at risk of poverty and social exclusion.

► Click to read more news about Poverty in Spain …

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