The Minimum Living Income is a Social Security benefit that aims to guarantee a minimum income to individuals and families in situations of economic vulnerability. Its collection, as happens with the rest of benefits and assistance, requires meeting a series of economic and personal requirements. Law 19/2021 establishes that, among other cases, “people of at least twenty-three years of age who are not integrated into a cohabitation unit” may be beneficiaries, as long as they meet the rest of the conditions provided for in the law.
In this sense, the Government activated a way so that unemployed people who had exhausted an unemployment benefit from the SEPE (State Public Employment Service) could access the Minimum Vital Income without having to start a new application. This route is not activated directly when the contributory benefit is exhausted, since the corresponding subsidy must first be recognized and exhausted, if applicable, since the General Social Security Law recognizes unemployed people who have “exhausted the unemployment benefit” as beneficiaries of the subsidy.
From there the so-called gateway to the Minimum Living Income comes into play. The reform approved in Royal Decree-Law 2/2024 incorporated into Law 19/2021 the twelfth additional provision on the “transition from unemployment benefit to the provision of minimum vital income”, with the aim of reducing administrative burdens and avoiding periods without income when the person is still in a vulnerable situation.
The operation of the procedure consists of several phases. Firstly, the SEPE informs the beneficiary of the subsidy of the possibility of transferring their data to Social Security. Afterwards, that person must give their consent through a responsible declaration and, if they authorize the procedure, the SEPE sends the information to the National Social Security Institute to verify whether the Minimum Living Income requirements are met.
If the benefit is approved, the rule provides that the date of the causative event is the date of exhaustion of the subsidy, so that the economic effects start from the first day of the following month and there is no interruption of income. That is, what is known as “waiting month” or “blank month”, where no type of income was received.
Requirements to collect the IMV
Social Security requires, in any case, to comply with the general conditions of access to the Minimum Living Income. These include having “legal and effective residence in Spain” for at least the year prior to the application, except for the exceptions provided by law. Furthermore, the person must be “in a situation of economic vulnerability due to lacking sufficient income, income or assets.”
Therefore, the key idea is that exhausting unemployment does not give direct access to the IMV, but it can be the first step. After consuming the contributory benefit, the person can access unemployment benefits if they meet the requirements. And if you also exhaust that subsidy, you can enter the gateway created by the Government to facilitate the jump to the Minimum Living Income.