In Spain there are recorded 1,944,800 single-parent householdsof which the 81.4% (1,582,100) are headed by a women. Of them, 70% have one son or daughter, and the rest have two. They cannot be allowed more. 52.7% of single-parent households are in risk of poverty and social exclusion compared to 28.5% of two-parent families. These are data from the Association of Single Mothers by Choice (AMPSE), which this Thursday raised its voice, pushed by a recent and celebrated ruling of the Constitutional Court which declares it unconstitutional that children born in a single-parent home cannot enjoy 26 weeks of care after birth, the same as babies born in homes with two parents. “We are not asking for more, we are only asking for equalization of our rights. The State, which should protect us, is the one who discriminates against us,” denounced the organization’s coordinator, María Guruceta.
In a press conference organized in Madrid, the representatives of this association have claimed that the Family Law projectwhich is currently in the amendment phase in the Congress of Deputies, includes the equalization of the birth permit for single-parent families to that of two-parent families (which is up to 32 weeks and not 16 because there is only one parent), a serious illness leave of a 10-day-old child (two-parent families have each parent five days), a parental leave of 16 weeks (instead of eight) for childcare during periods such as school holidays or the right to be absent from work “due to force majeure” for eight days on a paid basis (instead of four).
In economic matters, single-parent families report facing “taxation that does not adapt to the reality of their family situation”, which is why they ask to modify the Income Tax Law (Income Tax) to “equate their reduction in joint taxation to that of two-parent families, which are reduced by 3,400 euros, compared to single-parent families, which are only reduced by 2,150 euros in joint taxation” and to “obtain the deduction of 1,200 euros for single-parent families of one child and 2,400 for single-parent families of two, as the numerous special category families already enjoy. Likewise, they ask to adapt the Minimum Living Income (IMV) and its childhood complement to ensure more equitable access.
Single-parent families ask to “be recognized and defined by law to ensure that public policies can be developed and their rights are guaranteed.” Until now, each right won has been through a court ruling that has ruled them right. The draft of the standard includes this recognition through an accreditation title that would help them in bureaucratic procedures. Along with the above, the creation of a State Registry of Single Parent Families is proposed.
Likewise, they propose “that single-parent families with one child have access to the protective framework that large families enjoy general category. And that single-parent families with two children have access to the protective framework that those of one with a member with a disability or inability to work have, or whose income does not exceed that established to classify a family as large or as special large, and so on. access the framework of special large families.” Regarding this point, the current draft Family Law equates the rights of single-parent families with two children to the framework of special category large families, “leaving no immediate protective framework for of a son”, who They are 70%.
As they have explained, “equating those of two children only resolves historical discrimination based on marital status that single mothers of two children have been suffering compared to widows of two children, who are recognized as ‘special large’ families in the Large Families Law”.
Equalization of rights of boys and girls
“Not only are we not protected, but we are discriminated against in policies aimed at a two-parent family model,” Guruceta lamented, while criticizing that “the invisibility in the rules has consequences on the well-being of our sons and daughters.” As an example, he mentioned one of the main demands of the group, the “equalization of the duration of all leaves aimed at caring for guarantee the rights of children not to be discriminated against because of their family model and equal rights for conciliation with an equity approach”.
Currently, single-parent families only have the permissions derived from a single parent to meet the same needs of the boys and girls. “The objective is to guarantee the same time of protected care for boys and girls from single-parent families and protect the work of the mothers of these families,” they stated.
Errukine Olaziregi, a single mother of a four-year-old girl, experienced that situation. “Society advances but they forget about us, they ignore us, we are invisible“. This teacher from a public school in the Community of Madrid has reported that when she had to take her birth care leave, she asked to split it, but “the assumption of the Community of Madrid says that they give it to you if the other parent works , that is, they assume that there is another parent. You don’t exist. As there is a legal loophole, you are at the risk of the official on duty interpreting that the spirit of the rule is that 100% work or not, and since there is no other parent, he will deny you. In that case, once again, we individually judicialized the matter, such as the permits and, in my case, I also had to judicialize the access to fertility treatment [sanidad] public because in the norm there were two assumptions that it was pathology or, literally, 12 months of continued intercourse without successful pregnancy.”
After thanking the progress made by his colleagues – the association was born in 2007 -, Olaziregi has assured that he has “five years fighting about everything and I don’t plan to stop, for those that come later“, he announced before celebrating the rejection by the Supreme Court of the appeal presented by the Administration against its favorable ruling by the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid (TSJM) to the extension of the care permit. “One more step” after what has been “brutal wear and tear”.
17 years in struggle
The Association of Single Mothers by Choice was born in February 2007 with 21 women. Today they are 3,400 companions and 3,200 sons and daughtersthe majority between two and eight years of age. Pilar Peces is one of the founders and today her daughters are now 17 and 14 years old. In addition to being a single mother, she has a hearing disability.
Her fight began with her first pregnancy and currently “we are still in the same fight, demanding equal rights with two-parent families.” This mother assures that she has always felt “weirdo”but that the only time he felt vertigo at the “vulnerability we suffer” was when he became unemployed at the age of 45 and with two girls in his care. He has had to face situations such as not being given a place at the public nursery school “because he was overpaid.” “Single-parent families are ‘rich’, since we have one less to divide, our per capita income skyrockets and when it comes to getting points and scholarships we are ‘millionaires’ and they don’t give us points anywhere,” he explains.
Peces mentions other day-to-day situations in which she feels discriminated against: “You go to get the girl’s passport and they tell you where the father is, that you have to have the father in the family book, or that You get sick or go to the hospital and you don’t really know how to fit in with your family. because we do not have support among the institutions in family care.
As a disabled person with two children, Peces says that he applied to the Community of Madrid, where he lives, for the title of large family, but they denied it. “However, a marriage where both have a 33% disability each, have the title of large family. I I have a 37% disability, two daughters, and it seems that I need a husband so that they can give me the large family book.“, he complains.
Pilar Castellanos, president of AMPSE, added that the association has met “with many political parties that listen to us, attend to us, empathize, but once we leave their offices we become invisible again because they never call us again.” or they do not meet our demands. Women have asked not to be “bargaining chips” in political negotiations on other issues.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, announced last October a “new family law”, but in practice it is about unblocking the processing of a text practically the same as the one already promoted in 2022 by the former Minister of Social Rights Ione Belarra, whose negotiations in Congress declined after the last call for elections.
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