Welcome to a Spain without State aid to households and without public pensions. It does not have 9.6 million people living with incomes below the poverty line, 20.2% of the population, as happens nowbut almost half of the population would be poor. 42.6%, “about 10.8 million people” more in this situation, highlights in its latest report the European Network to Fight Poverty and Social Exclusion in the Spanish State (EAPN-ES). Of course, it also points out that Spain has a lot of room for improvement in poverty reduction, with less impact than many of our European neighbors.
On the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, this October 17, the numbers of people who live with very limited resources resonate once again, which prevent them from guaranteeing basic needs in the society around them. It also happens in rich countries, like Spain.
In 2023, one in four people in Spain lived at risk of poverty and social exclusion, 12.7 million people, 26.5% of the population, according to the AROPE indicator. This measures poverty in income, but also in aspects such as low employment intensity and lack of basic goods, such as not being able to afford a meal of meat, chicken or fish at least every two days and the inability to heat the home in winter. or cool it in summer. These last two indicators They marked maximums in 2023a year still very marked by inflation.
Without the State, what would happen?
With this photograph, the EAPN proposes an exercise. What would happen if there was no State or it was cut to the maximum, as some postulates and parties defend? As they claim politicians who win elections, like in Argentina. What would happen if there were no aid to families, social benefits, the minimum vital income or the minimum insertion income? What if we eliminated pensions from the equation?
Through data from the Living Conditions Survey, published by the INE (National Institute of Statistics), the study shows two scenarios. The first makes visible the impact of State transfers – without taking into account retirement and survival pensions – on the reduction of poverty today. The second also includes public pensions, which, although they are the result of social contributions paid by workers throughout their active period, are also partly covered by taxes.
“If the State only made retirement and survival transfers and no others, the poverty rate would increase this year from 20.2% to 26.2%, that is, 6 percentage points more. In other words, transfers without taking into account pensions prevent almost 3 million people from entering poverty this year,” indicates the study, with reference to 2023.
When the impact of pensions is taken into account, the reduction in poverty is much greater, at 16.4 percentage points, around 7.8 million people, since they are the main means of livelihood for a large part of retired. Although not alone. The EAPN wanted to highlight this year that “pensions are not just a thing for old people,” emphasizes Juan Carlos Llano.
The report also shows how much poverty is reduced among people under 65 years of age due to pensions, since they are part of their household income. Thus, “at the national level, thanks to these pensions, poverty is reduced by 5.4 points among the population aged 0 to 64,” highlights the study. “It is important to compare it with the effect of the rest of the transfers, which among this group are responsible for another reduction of 6.9 points,” the researchers add.
In the presentation of the study this week, Carlos Susías, president of EAPN-ES, highlighted this fact to underline the relevance of the public pension system as a social pillar for the entire population, in the face of the actors who constantly question it and also in front of the discourses of intergenerational confrontation, between young and old.
Susías warned that, “if they lower pensions, they will lower them and that’s it,” thus harming the older population (although not only), and without this money being surely reinvested in greater protection of young people. For this group, Susías insisted that Spain must improve its aid, but also act with policies in two of the areas that impoverish them the most: the housing and salaries.
Much to improve: IMV, minimum income and more
In its territorial analysis, the EAPN highlights the great differences in the impact of aid and pensions between the different Autonomous Communities.
“The action of the State (without pensions) is manifested with great intensity in Cantabria, the Basque Country, the Region of Murcia, the Canary Islands and Extremadura; In all of them, transfers reduce between 27% and 33% the value that the poverty rate would have if these transfers did not exist,” the report states. Those that show the least impact, with a reduction of between “17% and 21%” in poverty rates, are the Community of Madrid, Andalusia, Navarra and La Rioja.
“The bad thing is that the INE does not distinguish between types of aid or whether they are regional, municipal or state level. It groups together all State transfers,” explains Juan Carlos Llano, author and technical director of the report, which limits the more detailed analysis of regional differences and the effectiveness of the protective action of aid such as the IMV or minimum income with the data. of this survey.
Even so, social organizations know that there are Autonomous Communities that act very differently in matters within their competence, such as minimum insertion income for people at risk of poverty. Before the approval of the minimum vital income (IMV), reflected enormous differences in their coverage and amounts. For example, more than 65% of people at risk of poverty in Navarra and Euskadi received their minimum income, while it only reached less than 2% in Andalusia and Castilla-La Mancha.
With the implementation of the IMV by Social Security, instead of adapting the aid to make it complementary, the vast majority of the Communities have reduced their spending on this key anti-poverty policy. In 2022, the last year for which data is available, those that had cut these items the most were Aragón and Madrid, above 80%. CCOO Madrid denounces in a report this Thursday that “the appearance of the Minimum Living Income has been the ideal argument to definitively eliminate this regional income. The data leaves no room for doubt, from January to August of this year 28 minimum incomes have been granted,” laments the union.
The EAPN insists that fighting poverty requires specific economic aid for the most vulnerable people, which is effective and reach the populationa pending task of the IMV. It also requires transversal action: other transfers of support to families and children, where In Europe they have a big advantage over us and with better resultspolicies that guarantee public services, such as education or health, as well as other essential goods, such as access to housing.
Because when action is taken, poverty is reduced, they highlight in the EAPN. They give an example: the data from 2021, when the State deployed the “social shield” during the pandemic, with special impact on ERTE, which lifted around 1.5 million people out of povertyaccording to the organization.
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