The Minimum Living Income has reached more than 800,000 homes in Spain this month, where 2.5 million people and 1 million minors live, according to Social Security. Even so, there are families with dependent children who can collect a supplement associated with this benefit and have not requested it due to a common confusion: believing that exceeding the IMV income limit prevents access to this aid.
Alfonso Muñoz Cuenca, a Social Security official specialized in benefits and pensions, has clarified in a video that this is not the case and remembers that “you can charge 0 euros of IMV and still receive this help for child care.” The official refers to the Childhood Assistance Complement, known as CAPI, an aid for each minor child that is managed together with the Minimum Living Income, although it has its own income and assets limits.
Social Security removes the Minimum Living Income from a man who lived with his brothers and supported his family in Morocco: Justice says that he should continue to be paid
They withdraw the Minimum Living Income from a woman for owning a home of 36,231.59 euros and she must also return 4,775.21 euros
Muñoz explains that “there is a child support supplement, that is, additional support for each dependent minor child” which, according to the official, in many cases can be received even if the cohabitation unit does not have the right to the Minimum Living Income. This is established by Law 19/2021, which is the Minimum Living Income Law, although knowing that the limits that apply to the supplement are higher.
How much is charged for each child depending on age
The monthly amounts of the supplement are set by age brackets and do not depend on the household’s income level as long as it remains within the limit. The official lists them precisely in the video. It is 115 euros per month for each child under three years old, 80.50 euros per child between three and six years old and 57.50 euros for each child between six and 18 years old. The aid is paid per child, not per family, so a household with several children adds the different amounts until the monthly amount is complete.
To access the supplement, Social Security asks you to meet two economic requirements. The first is not to exceed 300% of the guaranteed income of the IMV corresponding to the type of home. The second is not to exceed 150% of the equity threshold, that is, the limit of assets and savings, set for that same type. They are the two limits that open the door to working families with modest incomes but above the vital minimum.
To understand it as usual, Muñoz gives an example in which a family with two adults and two children aged two and five, with an annual income of 20,000 euros. In that home, according to the calculations detailed by the official, the guaranteed income of the IMV is 16,726 euros. The family earns more, so they are not entitled to the Minimum Living Income. I would charge zero. And the conclusion reached by the majority remains there. If I don’t get to the IMV, I won’t get to the complement either.
But the CAPI limit in that same family typology is very different. Muñoz estimates the annual income limit to access the supplement at around 50,178 euros, a figure that is obtained by applying 300% to the guaranteed income of the IMV of that household. With 20,000 euros the family is far below, so they do have the right.
The resulting amount combines the age brackets of each minor. “It would be 115 euros for the two-year-old child and 80.50 for the five-year-old. In total, they would receive 195.50 euros per month,” the official calculates. About 2,350 additional euros per year for a family that thought they were entitled to nothing.