Families with children earning less than 3,700 euros per month will be able to apply for child-rearing assistance.

BarcelonaOne in three children live in poor families. It is for these 470,000 children that the Generalitat (Catalan government) is proposing to reform the current benefits system to increase the number of families receiving aid to cover 44% of the child population. The goal is to reduce the child poverty rate, "at least" to bring Catalonia in line with the European Union average, according to the president of the Generalitat (Catalan government), Salvador Illa, during the presentation this Monday of a plan that formulated a year ago by the executive chaired by Pere Aragonès. For this year, the Government will allocate approximately 700 million euros.

The plan presented proposes lowering the family income threshold for qualifying for the child supplement provided for in the state's minimum living income (IMV), which, for now, has very limited coverage due to the difficulty of processing and lack of public awareness. In this regard, the Minister of Social Rights and Inclusion, Mònica Martínez Bravo, has stated that starting next year, a family consisting of two adults and two children earning less than 3,700 euros per month could receive this aid. Thus, he indicated, it is not only about benefiting the most vulnerable groups but also being able to give more financial strength to the "middle classes", reaffirming the commitment to making the benefits system "more agile and less bureaucratic" than the current one, which has formal deficiencies and causes delays in collection or requires families to repeat the procedures by submitting documentation. This would allow minimizing, for example, the improper payments of benefits.

The minister also confirmed that the receipt of social benefits will be compatible with earned income, one of the aspects called for by third-sector organizations, to promote the employment of people experiencing social exclusion. This way, the amount of the aid would be adjusted according to their salary.

Aside from social benefits, the strategy to combat child poverty has six other axes: from reducing early school leaving to improving access to housing or a plan for healthy eating, noted President Isla, who admitted that ending this poverty is a "rep.

According to the latest data from the 2024 Living Conditions Survey, 34.7% of children and adolescents live at risk of poverty or social exclusion. The severe poverty rate reaches 14% and 11.4% suffer material or social deprivation. This reality has a particular impact on single-parent households, families of foreign origin, children with disabilities and those living in areas of high vulnerability.