The inequality that has been established between the Catalan and Spanish populations in macroeconomic terms means that poverty has become chronic, and unusual situations have been reached: but not even the most basic social benefits are able to lift vulnerable families out of deprivation. Two reports from Ivàlua, the public policy evaluation agency of the Generalitat, conclude that the Guaranteed Citizenship Income (RGC) is far from meeting its objectives, especially with regard to minors and women. In the reports, Ivàlua warns that two out of every three families with children who receive the benefit continue in a situation of severe poverty despite having this help, and that women who receive it suffer more vulnerability than men. The Generalitat to reach more people and to make it compatible with other aid and situations, but the CC OO union considers it insufficient and demands “urgent” measures.
The two Ivàlua reports analyze the benefit in the period between 2021 and 2023. Mirnaya Chabas, head of Social Protection at CC OO of Catalonia, explains that little has been done since then to improve the situation reported in the reports, despite the fact that the Government has a legal reform of the RGC underway, which recently passed through the Consell de Treball, Econòmic i Social de Catalunya. The report that analyzes it from a gender perspective indicates that poverty affects women more than men due to structural causes such as their responsibility for family care, and this is seen in the RGC: 55.4% of the beneficiaries are women. One of the aspects that the report highlights is that women who receive this help have “disincentives to access the labor market”, since they are afraid of losing the benefit. In this sense, one of the proposals to reform the law is framed, which is that the RGC is compatible with labor income up to a certain limit, so that a more progressive transition is possible. In its report, Ivàlua highlights that in the case of women, the RGC “protects against extreme vulnerability, but is insufficient to be able to access some essential goods and services to guarantee a dignified life.” This is due, above all, to an increase in the cost of living and housing that is not compensated by the amount of the benefit.
In the report on the RGC from the perspective of children and adolescents, Ivàlua’s conclusions are very serious. The agency considers that the amount of the benefit “is adequate for smaller households but is insufficient for larger households, with more than three members, where minors usually live.” The result is devastating: once they receive the benefit, only 4.4% of households without children remain in severe poverty, while in the case of households with children, 66% continue in severe poverty. That is to say, the benefit does not work as a vehicle to escape poverty in the case of families with children.
Being in severe poverty, a situation in which more than 167,000 minors were in Catalonia in 2023, means that the household income is less than 697.79 euros. Child poverty in Catalonia, which affects 26.74% of minors (one in four minors is below the poverty line) is seven percentage points higher than the European average. Severe poverty, which affects 12.35% of minors, is 5.5 points higher than the European average. The report criticizes the confusion between the RGC and the Minimum Living Income, the lack of elasticity of the benefit for households with more children, and that the coverage of the Catalan benefit is insufficient with respect to all minors who could receive this aid, among other things.
The Generalitat created the Guaranteed Citizenship Income in 2017 as a result of a popular legislative initiative that achieved two great milestones: that the Parliament voted unanimously in favor of this benefit, and that it was established as a subjective right. That is, from that moment on, the right to receive aid was recognized for any person who met the requirements. This novelty, which was intended to unify social aid and expand its range of coverage, has been systematically failed to comply: in previous reports Ivàlua pointed out that RGC coverage barely exceeded 40% of the households that are entitled to this benefit. With data from last September, in Catalonia there are 136,343 beneficiaries of the RGC, but in Catalonia 24% of the population, some 1.92 million people, are below the poverty line, according to the Arope rate.
The RGC is subsidiary to the Minimum Living Income since this state benefit came into force in 2020. This means that families that ask for help first obtain the IMV and then, if they meet the requirements, they obtain the RGC until the total amount of the two benefits reaches the limit set by the Catalan aid (in the range between 778.49 euros for a household with one person and 1,416.86 euros for households with more than five people)
The deployment has been slow and complicated, and they saw their applications rejected. There have also been episodes such as the claim, by the Generalitat, . The Minister of Social Rights, Mònica Martínez Bravo, has tried to tackle all these problems in the first place by promoting benefits that were paid unduly; and secondly, promoting a legal reform of the RGC so that it is compatible with income from work up to a limit – family income must not exceed, between aid and salaries, 1,550 euros per month – and so that the benefit can reach more people.
