The second vice-president and Minister of Economy, Labor and Employment, the socialist Mikel Torres, has already signed a draft decree that will modify the amounts of the guaranteed income (RGI) received by beneficiaries of the benefit that make it compatible with a low-paid job. The plan consists of granting a bonus of 140.11 euros per month to single women with minors in their care who decide to continue in the labor market, and also to pay between 67 and 123 euros more to the partners of a beneficiary who find a job and to raise their income. to 2,335 euros the maximum monthly in twelve installments that can be charged to access the RGI supplements in the case of families of two adults with three or more minors in their care. On the contrary, the downside is that single people or even couples could see their income decrease if the decree prepared by the government were adopted as is, although from now on there will be no three-year limit for what are called “employment stimuli”, which become indefinite. “In other words, they will receive lower monthly income, but they will receive it (or will be able to) for much longer,” the Executive argues about this cut in internal documentation to which this newspaper has had access.
The RGI is an economic right created in Euskadi to provide a minimum to those who do not have resources. The last reform is recent from 2022. But it is also a supplement for those who receive low salaries or pensions. It is precisely this decree that will reformulate these incentives for employment, but always starting from the principle of encouraging the active search for employment so that it is more advantageous than remaining indefinitely a beneficiary of aid. In addition, it is not hidden that it is necessary to “face the persistence of the phenomenon characterized by employed people who do not manage to overcome the poverty threshold due to their low income”. The new decree, which is now entering its final phase of development, will replace a regulation from 2001, with Juan José Ibarretxe as lehendakari and Joseba Azkarraga as sector advisor. At that time, the euro did not even exist and the peseta was the official currency.
In May 2024, there were 12,445 RGI files of people in employment, or 21% of the total 58,930 beneficiaries. Among them, 8,000 are single people or living as a couple, so they are the ones at risk of seeing their benefit reduced. In some cases this reduction could reach 229 euros. The Government justifies that it will carry out a “vertical” redistribution of the budget to give priority to large families and single parents. The economic assessment of the decree underlines that the new RGI law of 2022 has increased the budget item allocated to employment incentives by almost one million euros each month because all the amounts have been revised upwards and because these supplements have been made unlimited. However, the new system will only cost “2,447.37 euros per month”. Concretely, it is planned to go from 3,134,357.03 euros to 3,136,804.34 euros of expenditure, always according to official data.
There will be a reduction of about 600,000 euros for cohabitation units of one or two people (even some couples with children could also be affected) that will finance the rest of the improvements. In this table you can see the details of the changes planned in the subscriptions:
Dutch inspiration
The Executive claims to have “documented” “the negative effect of single parenthood on the probability of obtaining employment.” “Among the RGI holders who benefit from the single-parent supplement (8,525 cohabitation homes), in May 2024, 96.2% were women. Furthermore, it is very telling that among the 14,270 cohabitation units benefiting from the RGI headed by women without income from work, 56.8% were single-parent households,” it explains. This is why a “parental expenses bonus” will be created, that is, “an additional complementary incentive of 140.11 euros per month for RGI holders in single-parent cohabitation who access or remain in employment.” “It is reasonable to think that this innovation will contribute to increasing the employment rate in this group,” they estimate in Economía, Trabajo y Empleo.
The RGI has beneficiaries – the holders of the aid in the eyes of the Government – and beneficiaries – the members of their families. It has also been found that the female partners of male beneficiaries of the allowance are not mobilized for employment. To do this, a “personal bonus” of between 67 and 123 euros per month will be created for them. “In other words, the incorporation of the second member of the couple will result in a greater wage income premium and will therefore lead to an increase in the disposable income of the cohabitation unit. This design is timidly inspired by the model of tax credits for earned income in the Netherlands, which has proven to be reasonably effective in stimulating the integration of women into employment within households,” the government explains in its documentation. The “B side” is that this reduces the amounts for smaller families. “One of the novelties introduced by the draft decree is to improve the wage supplement in the case of larger cohabitation units,” the government admits.
On the other hand, the government is going to modify the thresholds to be able to access the stimuli. The intention is that, in extreme cases, even by charging 2,335 euros per month (still in twelve installments and not fourteen), you can access the RGI system. This will be the case for a family composed of at least five members, two adults and at least three minors. Before, the maximum was 1,780 euros. For a couple with two children, it goes from 1,705 to 2,125 euros and for the same couple with only one child from 1,630 to 1,915 euros. Without children, access is relaxed up to 1,705 euros compared to 1,555 previously. An adult with a minor can apply for an RGI of up to 1,765 euros compared to 1,550 euros in the current model and, if he has two dependent children, the maximums increase from 1,625 to 1,975 euros. Those who live alone are affected: previously, with up to 1,305 euros, there was a right to a supplement and now the window will close at 1,205 euros.
