New amendment of the Fiscal Authority to one of the star economic measures of the Government. In this case, on account of the minimum vital income. The benefit is barely reaching 35% of its potential beneficiaries, according to the analysis carried out by the Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF) in its second opinion on the benefit, which, according to the supervisory body, should motivate a reform of the help to reach a greater number of people and do so in a more agile way.
Although the social measure approved by the coalition Executive at the beginning of the pandemic does reach 82% coverage in the case of households in a situation of poverty (when they do not reach 40% of the median income) and 90% in In the case of single-parent households, globally it only reaches 284,000 families, compared to the 800,000 set as a target by the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migrations.
The outstanding balance data from the Tax Authority contrasts with those offered by the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, which are much higher. "The minimum income has reached 627,957 households," La Moncloa highlighted just two weeks ago. The AIReF has assured this Thursday that the department of José Luis Escrivá only counts the registrations and not the cancellations and that, therefore, it is not a net data. The president of the independent body has given the example of pensioners who receive a benefit: "It makes no sense to count only the registrations and not the cancellations" when they die.
Another aspect that AIReF has valued regarding the minimum income situation is that six out of ten households (58%) that could collect the benefit do not request it ('non take-up' rate). There are 469,000 homes in this situation. Of these, 61% are homes without minors. The majority are concentrated, in order, in Andalusia, Catalonia, the Valencian Community and Madrid.
Why don't households entitled to receive the minimum vital income request it? It is the big question to which the independent body cannot give an answer. The Tax Authority has offered a piece of information: 38% of the households whose rent would be increased would do so by less than 30%, so it could be understood that "it does not compensate them".
In this sense, the president of the Fiscal Authority, Cristina Herrero, has highlighted that in 2022 there was "little progress in the implementation" of the benefit. All these figures correspond to the data offered by the autonomous communities under the foral regime, since the foral estates have not provided their figures to the supervisory body. This situation, Herrero has exposed, demonstrates "the problems of non-contributory benefits" to reach their recipients.
At this juncture, AIReF figures the expenditure executed in the minimum income at 47% of its potential objective, which was 1,900 million for the past year. It is taking place, the Tax Authority has explained, a high rate of denial: seven out of ten applications are rejected. The average processing time for the benefit is four months.
Although the minimum income is not reaching all potential households, AIReF does point out that it is being collected by the families that need it most. In this sense, 62% of the beneficiaries have been receiving the benefit for more than 20 months. In addition, with the 15% increase in the benefit due to inflation, it has been possible to cover 80% of the increase in spending in the neediest households. The problem, concludes the Fiscal Authority, is that in households with lower incomes that receive the minimum income, the 15% improvement in the benefit has not been an effective measure to offset the rise in prices. In other words, the 15% increase in the IMV has meant an improvement of 690 euros in the average benefit, while inflation has increased household spending by 868 euros last year.
To solve these problems and reach a greater number of beneficiary households, AIReF proposes that the Government address changes in the management model, to make it a "more automatic" system. In other words, "advance towards a minimum income that starts ex officio or in a negative tax format" in order to reduce the rate of families that do not request the benefit.
