The Spanish government approved, Friday, May 29, in the Council of Ministers, the creation of a guaranteed minimum basic income for the poorest households. 

This income was set at 462 euros per month per person living alone, and up to 1,015 euros for a family, said Pablo Iglesias, the leader of the left-wing Podemos party and one of the vice-presidents of the government. It can be combined with low income. 

At 21.6% of the population, the poverty rate in Spain is the highest among Western European countries, ranking third in the European Union. The objective of the government of Pedro Sanchez is to bring it back to the level of the European average (16.9%), while an economic crisis is looming as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Some 850,000 households, or 2.5 million people, should benefit from this basic income, which will cost around 3 billion euros a year to public finances. 

With Reuters 

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