(Madrid) – The Spanish government’s failure to respond adequately to the sharp increase in poverty during the Covid-19 pandemic has left tens of thousands of people in desperate circumstances.
The 63-page report, “‘We Can’t Live Like This’: Spain’s Failure to Protect Rights Amid Rising Pandemic-Linked Poverty”, documents the lingering weaknesses in Spain’s social security system. Attempts by authorities to supplement a weak safety net have failed, leaving people unable to afford the necessities of life. Violations of people’s rights to food, social security and an adequate standard of living could worsen as global food and fuel costs rise. This study is the first in a series of studies in Europe into people’s right to an adequate standard of living in the context of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the rapidly rising cost of living around the world.
“The economic storm that accompanied the Covid-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on the lives of low-income people in Spain, leaving households unable to afford food even before the current cost of living crisis.” says Kartik Raj, researcher in Europe. at Human Rights Watch. “Government efforts to replenish an inadequate social safety net have been too little, too late and too little, meaning thousands of people still rely on emergency food aid and parents skipping meals so their children can eat.”
Human Rights Watch interviewed 52 people in food bank lines in Madrid and Barcelona, as well as 22 food bank employees and volunteers, specialists from non-governmental groups and academics, and analyzed government and other data related to the social safety net and food aid distribution.
National data shows that the Covid-19 pandemic has hit the low-income districts of Spanish cities such as Madrid and Barcelona particularly hard in terms of infection rates. The economic stagnation in these densely populated areas, insufficiently mitigated by social security systems, made matters worse.
The people’s income dried up and they could not afford food and other basic necessities. Many faced delays in receiving pandemic-related leave payments and responses to their Social Security support applications. People who made their living in the informal economy were hit doubly hard because they were excluded from Spain’s contribution-based social security programs or leave.
Families with children, the elderly dependent on state pensions, migrants and asylum seekers, and workers in sectors with a high female representation, such as the hospitality industry and seasonal work, were disproportionately affected. Single mothers, in particular, talked about skipping meals to ensure their children had enough to eat. Retirees interviewed in food lines said social security support, which was inadequate before the pandemic, is now even less.
Data from the country’s main network of food banks, (Federación Española de Bancos de Alimentos, FESBAL), showed a 48 percent increase in food distributed in 2020 compared to 2019, reaching the highest level of food aid since 2014, when Spain’s unemployment rates peaked after the global financial crisis. Regional and national food bank data shows that while demand fell in 2021, it remained about 20 percent higher than in 2019.
Faced with growing food lines and rising unemployment and poverty at the onset of the pandemic, the Spanish national government created a National Minimum Vital Income Program (Ingreso Mínimo Vital, IMV) in May 2020, which allows applicants to pay between €451 and €1,015 per month. based on family size. However, support is too low to guarantee an adequate standard of living, notes Human Rights Watch. And the IMV system itself has run into a series of problems.
Ana Belén, 42, from Puente de Vallecas in Madrid, lives with her adult son and 6-year-old daughter, and ran a bar until the pandemic-related closures forced her to close her business for good. “I’m getting the IMV,” she said. “It’s $465 a month. Our rent is €600. We can’t buy anything. Every month starts with a debt. There’s nothing in the fridge. I cannot put into words what the impact of that is on me.”
The social security system struggled to meet demand for the new IMV program, exacerbated by the backlog of office closure applications at the start of the pandemic. As a result, people were left without adequate social security and social assistance, in some cases for several months, and became hungry when their money ran out.
While the government tried to accelerate deployment of the IMV program — an existing pre-pandemic election promise — its lackluster rollout failed to mitigate the economic impact of the pandemic. Slow bureaucracy, arbitrary exclusions built into the criteria, a flawed calculation method for resource testing and high levels of denial of IMV applications contributed to the problem. There was also confusion about how the national program would interact with existing social assistance programs in Spain’s autonomous communities.
Analysis by investigative data journalists showed that by the end of March 2021, nine months after the start of the IMV program, three-quarters of applicants had been rejected. By the second year of operation, data showed that IMV reached only about 6 percent of people the Spanish government says are “at risk of poverty or social exclusion.”
Bold government action can now deliver a better and fairer outcome for people’s rights in Spain and give them the economic resilience to weather future crises, Human Rights Watch said. The government should enshrine in national legislation protections for specific socio-economic rights, including the right to an adequate standard of living and food, and substantially reform IMV and social security support in general.
The Spanish government should accelerate its process of helping people in need of IMV support and abolish restrictive eligibility criteria. It should reassess and review social security rates, including age-related pensions. Community autonomous governments should similarly review and reassess their social security support rates, and transparently index them to cost-of-living measures, including ensuring access to adequate, affordable food.
“The Spanish government’s measures to mitigate the financial shock that followed the public health emergency, however well-intentioned, have failed to avert growing hunger,” Raj said. “Spain needs a coordinated, well-funded social protection system that ensures that people in need of such support can live in dignity, protect their rights and not have to live hand to mouth.”
