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Spanish government vows to improve unemployment benefit and create more jobs
The reform aims to encourage unemployed people across Spain to return to work
Employment minister Joaquín Pérez Rey has announced the Spanish government’s new plan to review unemployment benefits with the view to “improving and simplifying” the system and encouraging those without work to re-enter the labour market.
This revamp of the framework is one of the promises caretaker president Pedro Sánchez has made to the political parties in order to secure their votes and his second term as leader of the government.
Unemployment benefit
At the moment, this benefit amounts to 480 euros per month and is activated when a person is out of work. The plan going forward, most likely the first major action of the new government, is to change the benefit to a sliding scale: unemployed people would receive more money earlier on and the amount would gradually decrease, although the overall amount of the benefit wouldn’t change.
The purpose of this reform is very clear, Pérez Rey explained: “To improve and simplify unemployment assistance benefits by giving new opportunities to people who do not have work.”
“Of course, what we are not working on is a reform that stigmatises the unemployed or that considers that people receive a subsidy of just over 400 euros because they do not want to work or voluntarily join the underground economy,” he added.
Rather, by gradually reducing the amount of unemployment pay a person is entitled to, the government hopes to give recipients a greater incentive to return to work.
Thus, the overarching goal is to change “the assistance provision so that it can serve more groups and in a better way while seeking their integration into the labour market.”
Image: Archive
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