The Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration has analysed the evolution of Spain’s at-risk-of-poverty and severe poverty rates on the occasion of Poverty Week.
The analysis, which draws on data from Eurostat and the National Statistics Institute, shows that these rates have shown a clear downward trend since 2021 and that poverty and social exclusion in Spain would be much more serious without the state’s protective role.
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The government’s protective action more than halves the poverty rate, the lowest in 10 years
The analysis carried out by the General Secretariat for Inclusion coincides in its conclusions with the report presented this Monday in the Senate by the European Anti-Poverty Network in Spain (EAPN-ES), which highlights that the protective action of State aid and benefits, together with the promotion of employment, have placed these rates at the lowest in the time series.
‘The measures put in place by the government since the pandemic – Minimum Living Income, the increase in the minimum wage, the VAT reduction, the caps on electricity and gas bills and the revaluation of pensions – have prevented 10.8 million people from falling into poverty’, explained the minister Elma Saiz, according to data from the EAPN report. ‘In other words, if families had only been able to rely on their real income, without state aid, the poverty rate would be 42.6%; but thanks to all transfers, including pensions, this rate stands at 20.2%’.
The at-risk-of-poverty rate has fallen from 21.7 percentage points in 2021 to 20.2 in 2023, which is the lowest rate since 2015. ‘The new goals developed in the 2030 Agenda highlight the importance of this rate as a specific indicator,’ added the minister. As for the severe poverty risk rate, it has gone from 10.2 percentage points in 2021 to 8.3 points in 2023, which is also the lowest rate since 2015.
‘These data show that the progressive government’s roadmap is the right one, but our action is not finished and we are well aware of that. We are not satisfied,’ said Saiz. ‘The fight against inequality and poverty must be a shared fight in which the State and the Autonomous Communities are equally committed’, added Saiz.
In this sense, the Minimum Vital Income, a policy launched in 2020 by the Government, has been the umbrella necessary to deploy a homogeneous protective action throughout the country. However, ‘it was designed to be complementary to the regional minimum incomes, which could take advantage of the momentum of the IMV to increase their amount or extend aid to other groups, and 12 of the 17, including the two autonomous cities, have opted to reduce them. We need to be united in this national aim’, continued Saiz. The only ones that have not reduced their minimum incomes are Catalonia, Navarre, the Basque Country, Valencia and the Canary Islands.
The Minimum Living Income has had an effect where it was most needed since it was launched in 2020, reducing severe poverty by between 5 and 20%. In Andalusia, Extremadura or Murcia, for example, the LMI reaches around 8% of the population.
The minimum living income has been revalued by more than 30% since 2020, with a 15% increase in 2022 to cope with inflation.