Young fathers and mothers can collect the Minimum Living Income (IMV) from the age of 18, or earlier if they are emancipated, when they have dependent children, five years earlier than the rest. Social Security applies the same income and assets limits to them as to other households, but if they live with their own parents they form a single household with them and everyone’s income is counted, except in cases such as separation or eviction.
The rule already appeared in Royal Decree-Law 20/2020, which created the benefit. Article 5 of Law 19/2021 (available at this link) asks the holders for “a minimum age of 23 years, or to be of legal age or emancipated minors in the event of having children or minors in custody for the purposes of adoption or permanent family fostering.” These parents are also not required to have lived independently, something that article 10 reserves for those who request help alone.
According to the 2026 Social Security table, an adult with a dependent minor is entitled to up to 953.68 euros per month, which rises to 1,115.07 with the single-parent family supplement, that of a single adult with exclusive care and custody. Added to this amount is the child support supplement of 115 euros per month for each child under three years of age.
Requirements to collect the IMV if you are under 23 years old and have a dependent child
In addition to age, Social Security asks these holders to comply with another series of requirements, which can be consulted in articles 10 and 11, being the following:
- Have a legal and effective residence continuously during the last year in Spain.
- That the cohabitation unit has been established for at least 6 months prior to the request, unless it is due to birth.
- That the income from the previous year is at least 10 euros below the corresponding amount.
- That the assets, not counting the habitual residence, be less than 36,973.44 euros in the case of an adult and a minor in 2026.
The application is submitted to Social Security online, on its IMV portal, or at a Social Security office (by appointment), and if six months pass without a response from the time it is registered, it is deemed denied.
If they live with their parents, the entire household counts
Article 6 of the law considers those who live in the same home and are a family up to the second degree a unit of coexistence, so that the young person who remains in their parents’ home with their child forms a single unit with them. To grant aid, according to article 11, “the resources of all its members” are looked at, also the salary or pension of the child’s grandparents.
For example, a 19-year-old girl with no income the previous year, who lives alone with her two-year-old son and has sole custody, would earn a total of 1,230.07 euros per month in 2026, which is 1,115.07 of guaranteed income and 115 of the supplement. If you live with your parents, the household would consist of three adults and one minor, so the IMV will rise to 1,393.84 euros for everyone.
In the event that the grandparents earned 1,200 euros per month between the two of them, the benefit would remain at 193.84 euros, plus the 115 euros of the supplement. This is so, since the Minimum Living Income is the difference between the income of the unit and the amount assigned to said unit.
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Royal Decree-Law 35/2026, in force since November 12 and not yet validated, says that single-parent families can live with other family members “without losing the application of the complement” of single parenthood, although it does not change the IMV law. Article 7 of said law allows assistance to be requested separately, even if living with family members, to the woman victim of gender violence who has had to leave her home and, during the following three years, to those who left it due to a separation, a divorce or a breakup of a couple with the procedures already started (those for child custody, if the couple was not married or registered), due to an eviction or because their home became uninhabitable.