The Ministry of Labor and Social Economy has defended that “it is logical” that there have been “tensions” over the Social Security contributions of students in vocational training and university internships. “It is logical that there will be some tensions at the beginning, but the system is already implemented. It will mean that students are better protected,” said the Secretary of State for Social Security and Pensions, Borja Suárez, yesterday during the press conference presenting the unemployment data for the month of December.
The contribution for students on unpaid internships came into effect on January 1, after a three-month moratorium. Some autonomous communities, such as the Catalan one, had requested a new postponement of the measure due to technical doubts that arose at the last moment and the difficulty of carrying out the management. In December, a system was established to make it easier for educational centers to communicate to the Administration about registration with Social Security. On December 28, a royal decree extended the registration period until the month of March, even though the student has been doing his or her internship since January 1, to avoid collapsing the administrative services of the autonomies. The measure will affect more than one million vocational training and university students in Spain.
Suárez acknowledged that there has been “resistance, noise and concerns” due to the entry into force on January 1 of this measure and showed “empathy” with the VET and university institutions due to the concern about the implementation of a new system that, In his words, “it involves little economic cost and some management cost.” The measure is 95% subsidized by Social Security and the remaining 5% has been assumed this year by the Ministry of Education. Despite this, it requires administrative costs for registration that are assumed by the autonomous communities and, in the case of Catalonia, by the owners of the private centers for their students.
Suárez was “very satisfied” that the new system is already being applied, news that he considers “extraordinarily positive for young people and for the system.” And he specified that this measure will expand students’ awareness “of the importance of being within the system, of the generation of rights that this entails and of the commitment to retirees.” He also considered that “it is a great advance that will also serve to improve the quality of the practices that are held now, which until now were activities that depended much more on the promoting educational entities, and that with this step forward will be homogenize,” he stated.