It is noted that there are elections around the corner and the Government does not talk so much about crisis but about proposals that encourage staff. In this case, with an issue that touches us full, well, maybe not yet, but that, if approved, could benefit mothers who retire from January 1, 2016 and who are entitled to a contributory pension.
The proposal consists of increase the retirement pension by 5% to women with two children, 10% to those with three, and the one with four, 15%. A measure that, according to the vice president, intends to support motherhood and birth, not only as it is done with the IRPF, during the upbringing, in the first years of life, but at the moment in which retirement is accessed. Does this mean that it will reach us?
Well obviously not. The measure has not yet been approved, we will see what happens, maybe it will be stardust like so many "electoral" proposals. But, although it is approved, we do not know if it will extend in time ... A couple of days ago I listened to an economist talk about the predictions made decades ago and pointed out that it is science fiction.
That is, like so many other support for motherhood, it could disappear at any time. For mothers who, like me, retire from a few decades from now, we could say, as don Juan Tenorio: "So long you fix it". Although ne this case, what worries us is not the salvation of the soul but to arrive at a dignified retirement.
On the other hand, we are hardly going to encourage children if the current situation is so precarious for families, if young people do not find employment and educational and health conditions are getting worse ...
Even the mothers who today could be grandmothers and could benefit from these increases in the pension (about 30 euros per month on average), maybe they would prefer to see their children at work and not have to allocate part of their savings to help them , or that there were other possibilities of caring for their grandchildren ...
Other measures of the Family Plan
This rise in pensions is part of the Family Support Plan yesterday approved by the Council of Ministers and will be negotiated in the Toledo Pact seeking the support of all parties.
Some of the initiatives of this plan, such as the aid of 1,200 euros per year for large families and people with disabilities in their care, as well as for single-parent families with two children, are already applied as indicated by the Minister of Health, Social Services and Equality, Alfonso Alonso.
The Government says that it will also study the improvement of the Social Security benefit for a child or better foster caregiver and indicates that special social and economic attention will be given to families in severe poverty with dependent children (which, remember , more and more).
It is also intended improve reconciliation, with initiatives to promote greater flexibility in the working day and the need to regulate "telecommuting" is raised (to see if these good purposes are really fulfilled ...). In addition, the benefit for the care of children suffering from cancer or with any other serious pathology is extended, so that it also covers children in any of its modalities.
In conclusion, I will point out that the fact that the Government of Spain approves spending plans and measures in electoral campaign, a few days after the voting, it seems to me a gesture of intentionality quite clear and quite offensive to those who have not seen their demands heard during four years of the legislature. Hopefully this increase in pensions will be approved, expanded and extended over time.
But what about the families that today have small children and see so many difficulties to make ends meet? And those children who are going to work abroad even if they don't want to? And those couples who don't have children because they can't find work, no floor, no expectations for the future? And that thousands of children at risk of poverty and social exclusion? No, everything is not as beautiful as we are painted, however good these measures remain.
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In Babies and more | 27% of Spanish children are at risk of poverty or exclusion, The Government rules out extending paternity leave from two to four weeks
