whitelinen

With the Spanish economy showing absolutely no signs of recovery and the unemployment figures showing around 20% unemployed though thought by many to be much higher, just what state benefits are available in Spain?

Rotor

Unless you have been paying SS and income tax I`m pretty sure your entitled to ZERO ,which is how it should be in my view, it keeps the undesirables out other than professional criminals (most of the time anyway).
This is how it should be in the U.K .

Veleta

In my opinion the state benefits here aren't half bad.

For every year you have worked you are entitled to 4 months benefit which is approx 70% of your last salary. The amount will vary depending on certain things, such as whether you have dependents.

I claimed for a while and I was getting well over 1000 euros a month.

When this runs out, if you still haven't found a job the goverment will now give you 420 euros a month for six months only (this is a new thing that they have just brought in).

I think it is better this way.....ie, a generous amount of money for a limited period of time, than a measly amount of money indefinitely. It encourages people to really get off their backsides and find work as they know the benefit won't last forever.

Sharon B

Veleta, how does this work then if you have been self employed and paying all your dues and are then out of work?

twistedmelon

Where I am you have to do 31 days work for the local council to be entitled to this money. Which is a great idea for getting local works done. Not so good if you are old or can't do the 31 days.
There is also help with housing costs but you have to be a special case to get it. There is also help from the Social services for some things but things like disability equipment is only done once a year in February.

Veleta

Unfortunately your cuota autonoma counts for nothing.

Although I remember seeing on the news recently that they were going to change this.....but the autonomos still wouldn't be able to claim as much as employed people. I'm not sure if this has come into effect yet or if it is still at the "talking about it" stage.

twistedmelon

Strange, as far as I know it is the same.
The self employed here pay 320 euros a month contributions. What is this for then?

Sharon B

Would I be able to claim for anything? Although I hope it never gets to that stage but you never know whats around the corner.

Veleta

Good question. Whatever it is for, it isn't for subsequently claiming unemployment benefit (although like I said earlier, the goverment has been looking at changing this as an anti-crisis measure). I saw the announcement on the news about 2-3 weeks ago about this new measure. From memory. I think that they said self-employed people would only be able to claim for half the amount of time that employed people can claim for, and that you can expect the amount to be significantly less.

I'm sure a quick bit of googling would bring up the specifics. Not sure if this is in force yet though.

whitelinen

Autonomos (self employed) pay enormous amounts of SS and get nothing.

There is nothing in the pipeline regarding autonomos receiving unemployment benefit.

I have a Spanish friend who opted to pay 500 euros a month autonomos in the hope of getting a decentish pension but with business on the decline and people not paying he needs to go back to the minimum monthly payments but is not allowed to reduce his payments to the basic monthly self employed contribution of 245(ish) a month until next January.

Immigrants from OUTSIDE the EU automatically get 600 a month in Spain so not sure how that fits with your views on undesirables.

twistedmelon

I know a lot of self employed expats who won't be happy to find that out.
I don't understand a system whereby you HAVE to pay this money each month regardless of how much you are earning

lynnxa

and if you 'baja' you lose your health cover after I think 3 months...............


regardless of how long/how much you have paid previously

Veleta

Ok, here it is:

http://www.publico.es/dinero/241800/...ran/paro/euros

Not in force until 2011.

It seems you have to "opt-in" by paying a cuota each month. Like an insurance I suppose.

You get 70% of your cotización for a max of 6 months.

Each year you pay into the system will entitle you to 2 months benefit.....so you need to be paying in for 3 years in order to be able to get 6 months of benefit.

Veleta

To be honest, if they had done their homework properly they should be aware of this already!!! It's not new news.

whitelinen

Even if you earn nothing you still HAVE to pay.

Also I have read elsewhere that if a self employed person stops paying autonomos, their health care entitlement stops after 3 months as well.