Ya está operativa la pasarela que permite agilizar la transición del subsidio por desempleo al Ingreso Mínimo Vital

Recipients of the unemployment benefit who exhaust this benefit without having achieved a job can, from today, go on to receive the Minimum Vital Income (MVI), thanks to the new procedure that regulates this transition, simplifies the procedures and eliminates administrative burdens. The beneficiaries will no longer have to apply for the IMV or provide any documentation.

Minister Elma Saiz has highlighted the importance of this new measure as a decisive step towards simplifying access to the Minimum Vital Income (MVI) and ensuring a fairer and more efficient system. "With the launch of this gateway, we remove administrative barriers and make it easier for vulnerable citizens to receive the help they need automatically, without cumbersome procedures or unnecessary delays."

Saiz has stressed that this innovation will make it possible to speed up the transition from unemployment benefit to IMV for those who meet the requirements, ensuring continuity in the economic protection of families: "We continue to work to ensure that this benefit reaches those who need it most, strengthening our social protection system.

An automatic procedure

The operation of this “passerelle” between both features works as follows:

1. During the quarter prior to the expiration of the unemployment benefit, the SEPE will inform the beneficiary about the possibility of sending his data and those of his family unit, in order to process the IMV benefit.
2. To do this, the beneficiary must give his consent and, where appropriate, sign a responsible declaration that he has the consent of the members of his family unit.
3. If it authorizes the consent, the SEPE, within ten days from the date on which the unemployment benefit is exhausted, will send to the National Social Security Institute (INSS), as the entity managing the IMV benefit (or to the competent bodies in the cases of the Basque Country and Navarre), the information necessary for its processing.
4. In case of recognition of the right to the IMV, the date of the causative event will be the date of the exhaustion of the subsidy, and the economic effects will occur on the first day of the month following the exhaustion of the subsidy, that is, there will be no period of loss of income for the recipients. The person who holds the Minimum Vital Income will, in any case, be the one who would benefit from the unemployment benefit.

For those cases in which this procedure cannot be used or when citizens have not given their consent, the interested parties can submit their application very easily on the new INSS portal https://prestaciones.seg-social.es/, by postal mail or in the Social Security Information and Attention Centers (CAISS).

The attention for this gateway to the IMV will be made after personalized communication to each of the beneficiaries who are receiving the last quarter of service who will be specifically attended by the SEPE in its network of offices

This new procedure is regulated by Royal Decree-Law 2/2024, of 21 May, which includes other measures that benefit IMV recipients, among which is the exclusion of non-contributory unemployment benefit from the calculation of IMV income, when at the date of application of the IMV this benefit had been extinguished. Thus, the unemployment benefit will not reduce the amount of the IMV.

This measure, which also enters into force today, represents a very important advance to speed up and facilitate access to the provision of the Minimum Vital Income, whose ultimate objective is to prevent the risk of poverty and social exclusion of people who live alone or are integrated into a unit of coexistence and lack basic economic resources. In addition, one of its main objectives is to address child poverty.

More accessible requirements

This Royal Decree-Law simplifies requirements for access to the IMV and since last May introduced some noteworthy changes. For example, for de facto couples, the requirement to prove a period of cohabitation of 5 years was eliminated, and since then it is only necessary to provide the registration or formalization of the de facto couple in a public document at least two years before the date of application for the benefit.

Likewise, it is no longer necessary for the application for the benefit to be signed by all the members of the cohabitation unit who are older. Instead, the applicant accompanies a responsible declaration on the consent for the IMV application of all the members of the coexistence unit.

Finally, and as a result of the elimination of access to unemployment benefits for the group of persons released from prison as a specific case, modifications are introduced to meet the needs of this group, who are in a vulnerable situation, through the provision of IMV.

New phone 020

They are not the only new features related to the IMV that have started to work recently, since a few days ago the short phone 020, a specific service of attention and information on the Minimum Vital Income, began to work.

It is free, nationwide in scope, and allows citizens to request information on the provision, receive guidance to use the electronic services, know the status of their file or know the requirements of the child support supplement, among many other queries. In its first days of operation, already about 30% of IMV information calls enter through this new numbering.

650,000 households already receive the IMV

This benefit has reached 648,469 households in October in which 1,968,152 people live, according to the latest statistics published by the INSS. The average amount of the benefit is 473.41 euros per month per household and, overall, this month’s payroll has amounted to 511.2 million euros.

In October, 68.4% of the living units receiving this benefit live minors (443,295). If the statistics are disaggregated by means of access to the benefit, it is seen that the beneficiary households of the IMV with Child Support Supplement (Complete IMV and IMV-CAPI) this month reach 453,383.

This form of IMV involves an aid of 115 euros per household per month in the case of children from 0 to 3 years; 80.5 euros per month for each child between 3 and 6 years; and 57.5 euros per month for each child between 6 and 18 years. The average amount of the supplement this month has been 68.5 euros per child and 127.3 euros per household with children.