The Community of Madrid has decided to equate low-income families with those with incomes in excess of 100,000 euros -150,000 in the case of numerous ones- when it comes to benefiting from what is known as kangaroo checks so that, before the absence of vulnerability criteria, the only condition to access, or not, this aid of up to 4,000 euros per applicant will be the “search order”.
The regional government chaired by Isabel DÃaz Ayuso has opened this Friday the process for the granting of aid to cover the payment of household employees to care for children under 12 years of age or dependents. And it has done so without the processing depending on income criteria. “These aids are held by other autonomous communities that do not even establish an income limit,” argue sources from the regional Executive.
In this way, as the Ser chain has advanced, the maximum income threshold that the Community of Madrid has established is 30,000 euros per capita, so a couple with a child who earns 90,000 euros a year -or a large family with three children with an income of up to 150,000 euros per year- may apply for aid with the same protection as a vulnerable family with an income of 16,000 euros. In fact, only the speed, or expertise, when submitting the application will determine who benefits from aid of up to 4,000 euros per applicant.
The subsidy program has an initial endowment of two million euros although, in the event that “the applications submitted exceed the expected economic item, the credit “is expandable”. So, in the event that families with higher incomes attend their requests before others with low or very low income, the damage would be a delay in the payment of the subsidy.
The fact that the purchasing power of families is not a determining factor for access to social benefits in the Community of Madrid is not new. Just a year ago Isabel DÃaz Ayuso decided to allocate public educational scholarships to private centers for families with incomes of up to 100,000 euros a year. With the difference that, in this case, applicants with fewer resources do enjoy priority.
The commotion originated from allowing couples at risk of exclusion to opt for the same aid as well as those who, with a child, earn up to 107,739 euros, when before the limit was 30,000 euros for those who opted to study Baccalaureate, 60,000 for those of FP or 75,000 for those of infant education. Despite the criticism, Ayuso defended his decision as a gesture to “those who always pay and never receive anything.”
