2023-05-04 00:31:48
55% of the empty unemployed do not receive any unemployment benefit, neither the contributory nor the subsidy. This is the worst coverage rate in all of Spain, where the average stands at 35%, according to a CC OO report on the ‘Labor market and unemployment protection’ prepared with data at the end of last year. In absolute terms, this high percentage implies that more than 60,000 unemployed are not entitled to receive benefits from the Public Employment Service (SEPE), although they can access other types of aid, such as Income Guarantee Income (RGI) or the Minimum Vital Income (IMV). Specifically, in the Basque Country there were 110,798 unemployed at the end of 2022 and 50,474 of them received a benefit, which is 45%. This very low percentage is not something specific for that year, but rather has remained so in recent years. In fact, it barely changed compared to 2021. The weak coverage rate, both in the Basque Country and in the rest of Spain, highlights problems such as the chronification of unemployment, which leads to the exhaustion of benefits. In the Basque Country around half of the unemployed have been looking for work for more than two years. Unemployment in the Eurozone 6.5% was the March unemployment rate in the Eurozone, a new all-time low, falling one tenth compared to February. Spain remains at the head of unemployment in Europe with a rate of 12.8%, according to Eurostat. There is no clear explanation of why the Basque Country is the community with the lowest percentage of unemployed with benefits. “The difference does not lie in those who receive the contributory benefit but in those who receive the subsidy. There are proportionally fewer unemployed Basques receiving this aid than in Spain as a whole”, points out Raúl Arza, general secretary of UGT-Euskadi. According to data from the Ministry of Labour, at the end of last year, 29,357 Basques were receiving the contributory benefit -the one that is received based on the contribution for this concept-, 58% of the 50,474 beneficiaries. The subsidy was received by 18,930 people, 37.5% of the total. In Spain as a whole the proportions were 46% in the first case and 44% in the second. The key is therefore that there are fewer beneficiaries of the subsidy in Euskadi. The causes may be that the conditions for access are not met, such as the level of income. What the Basque Government Employment Department clarifies is that to access the RGI it is required to make use of all the benefits to which one is entitled and then supplements can be obtained within the Basque framework. In relation to the amount charged, the Basque Country is among the communities with the best position. The average benefit in the Basque Country is 954 euros, above the 929 euros average in the national group. However, there are three other communities with even higher amounts: the Balearic Islands, with 1,120, Navarra, with 992, and Catalonia, with 963. In its report, CC OO calls on the Government to undertake the compromised reform of unemployment assistance protection, it is that is, non-contributory aid such as subsidies for people over 52 years of age. The union recognizes that the Executive has already taken positive measures such as raising the percentage of the regulatory base that is charged as a benefit after six months from 50% to 60%. But he considers that changes are pending in the care part. Remember that Minister Yolanda Díaz promised a reformulation of the aid, simplifying its structure and facilitating the access criteria. Calviño anticipates Escrivá: 400,000 new affiliates The first vice president, Nadia Calviño, revealed a day ahead of time the “excellent behavior” of the Spanish labor market at the beginning of the year. Social Security added more than 400,000 new affiliates on average in this first four-month period, according to the minister, who did not wait for José Luis Escrivá’s department to make the official data public today. In the absence of knowing the details, Calviño spoke of a “general increase in all sectors.” “We are facing a structural change in our labor market,” she boasted. In addition, she praised that “for the first time” in the Spanish labor market, “quantity and quality go hand in hand”, due to a longer duration of the contracts and a reduction in the temporary rate.
#Basque #unemployed #receive #unemployment #benefit