The government opens the fast track to receive IMV once unemployment benefits have been exhausted

The Government is paving the way for unemployed people who exhaust their benefits to be protected by the Minimum Vital Income (IMV). Beneficiaries of the subsidy will be able, from today, to start receiving the IMV even without administrative burdens or bureaucratic procedures: if they meet the conditions, they will receive the allowance the following month thanks to the new procedure that regulates this transition. Thus, beneficiaries will no longer have to request the IMV or provide documents.

The operation of this “bridge” between the two functionalities works as follows:

1. During the quarter preceding the exhaustion of unemployment benefit, the SEPE will inform the beneficiary of the possibility of transmitting their data and those of their family unit, in order to process the IMV allowance.
2. To do this, the beneficiary must give consent and, where applicable, sign a responsible declaration attesting that he has the consent of the members of his family unit.
3. If the agreement is authorized, the SEPE, within ten days following the date of exhaustion of the unemployment benefit, will send it to the National Institute of Social Security (INSS), as the managing body of the unemployment benefit. IMV allocation (or to the competent bodies). in the case of the Basque Country and Navarre), the information necessary for their processing.
4. In the event of recognition of the right to IMV, the date of the causal event will be the date of exhaustion of the subsidy, and The economic effects will occur on the first day of the month following the end of the subsidy. There will be no period of loss of income for beneficiaries. The person receiving the minimum subsistence income will, in all cases, be the beneficiary of unemployment benefit.

For cases where this procedure cannot be used or when citizens have not given their consent, interested parties will be able to submit their request very easily on the new INSS portal (by post or at the Service and Information Centers). ‘Social Information). Security (CAISS).

This new procedure is regulated by Royal Decree-Law 2/2024 of May 21, which includes other measures in favor of IMV beneficiaries, including the exclusion of non-contributory unemployment benefit in the calculation of IMV income. on the date of the IMV application, this subsidy had expired. SO, Unemployment benefit will not reduce the amount of IMV.

This measure, which also comes into force today, represents a very important step forward in accelerating and facilitating access to the minimum subsistence income, the ultimate objective of which is to prevent the risk of poverty and social exclusion of people living alone or integrated into a cohabitation unit and lack basic economic resources. Additionally, one of its main goals is to combat child poverty.

Minister Elma Saiz highlighted the importance of this new measure as a decisive step to simplify access to IMV and guarantee a fairer and more efficient system..

More accessible requirements

This royal decree-law simplifies the conditions of access to the IMV and has introduced notable changes since last May. For example, For de facto couples, the obligation to prove a period of cohabitation of 5 years has been removedand since then, it is sufficient to provide for the registration or formalization of the de facto couple in a public document at least two years before the date of application for the benefit.

Likewise, it is no longer necessary for the application for benefits to be signed by all adult members of the cohabitation. Rather, the applicant submits a responsible statement regarding consent to the IMV application from all members of the cohabitation unit.

Finally, and as a consequence of the removal of access to unemployment benefits for the group of people released from prison as a specific case, modifications are introduced to be able to respond to the needs of this group, which finds itself in a vulnerable situation, to through the provision of IMV.

New phone 020

These are not the only developments related to IMV that have recently started to operate, since for a few days the short telephone number 020 has started to operate, a specific service of attention and information on the minimum subsistence income.

It is free, national in scope, and allows citizens to request information about the benefit, receive advice on the use of electronic services, find out the status of their file or find out the requirements for the child food supplement , among other questions. During its first days of operation, approximately 30% of information calls on IMV go through this new numbering.

650,000 households already benefit from the IMV

In October, this benefit reached 648,469 households in which 1,968,152 people live, according to the latest statistics published by the INSS. The average amount of the allowance is 473.41 euros per month per household and, in total, the payroll for this month amounts to 511.2 million euros.

Minors lived in 68.4% of cohabitation units benefiting from this benefit in October (443,295). If the statistics are disaggregated by access to the allowance, we see that households receiving IMV with the Child Assistance Supplement (IMV Complete and IMV-CAPI) reach 453,383 this month.

This IMV modality involves aid of 115 euros per household per month for children aged 0 to 3; 80.5 euros per month for each child between 3 and 6 years old; and 57.5 euros per month for each minor between 6 and 18 years old. The average amount of the supplement this month was 68.5 euros for each minor and 127.3 euros per household with minors.