The Spanish government creates a single-parent family title to reinforce benefits

MadridThe last Council of Ministers before the start of the May 29th election campaign will recover a measure that was left in a drawer with the state families law, a regulation that was left in standby in 2023, with the early elections, and which has now suffered the same fate (it was blocked in Congress). Specifically, the Spanish government will approve this Tuesday the creation of an official single-parent and single-mother family title at a state level that accredits them officially before any administration or public or private entity. It is, in short, a title similar to that of the large family. The main change of the new card is that it will equate single-parent families with two children with large families. That is, they will have the same rights and, therefore, will be able to access the same level of public aid.

Sources from the Ministry of Social Rights detail that the new regulation will have a budget of 820 million euros per year and is expected to reach 760,000 families – about three million people –. The measure is approved within the framework of a royal decree-law that will include the reinforcement of other social benefits for families and that will need the approval of Congress and, therefore, will have to be validated by the Permanent Deputation for it to prosper.

"Raising a child alone should not mean doing it without support [...] This is a step towards justice for those who give everything every day for their sons and daughters", stated the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, through the social network X. The Minister of Social Rights and Agenda 2030, Pablo Bustinduy (Sumar), has acknowledged that this was one of the "objectives of the legislature": "A social protection law for single-mother families (finally an official title of their own), large families with few resources, and people with disabilities", he explained.

In parallel, the decree also equates households with families with two children in which one of the parents has a disability equal to or greater than 33% with a large family. At the same time, aid for large families with four children is reinforced.

In Catalonia, single-parent families (especially households headed by a lone woman, which are the majority) suffer a rate of risk of poverty and social exclusion much higher than the average.