Spain has a problem with the family. It does not support her enough, which translates into fewer and fewer children because there is no way to care for them, nor does there have enough time or resources. To alleviate this situation, the Minister of Social Rights, Pablo Bustinduy (Sumar), is working to study extending maternity deductions in personal income tax (100 euros per month) from the current 0 to three years to 6 years.
This was communicated today to the representatives of the Platform of Children’s Organizations (POI), an organization that brings together 75 non-profit entities dedicated to children. In this meeting, Bustinduy proposed that Spain have a universal child-rearing benefit, a right that is established in other European countries and that, according to the minister, must be guaranteed in our country “urgently.”
The minister recalled that Spain already has an “almost universal” child-rearing benefit that covers from the birth of the baby to 3 years of age, if we take into account, on the one hand, the maternity deduction for personal income tax (from 100 euros to month) and, on the other hand, the childhood supplement contemplated by the Minimum Living Income. But, according to Bustinduy, this “is not enough,” so he will work to extend the maternity deduction up to six years, thus expanding its coverage.
For this reason, the Sumar group will include an amendment when the Family Law reaches Congress, once the draft is approved (without that measure) by the Council of Ministers in the coming days. In the draft, however, it will not be.
The minister believes that these measures should go “further”, such as implementing the universal child-rearing benefit, as demanded by children’s organizations, such as the POI itself, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which asked Spain to apply it.
The minister considers that it is “an incomprehensible exception” that Spain does not have this benefit as other countries around us do, and has related “this anomaly” to the structural underfinancing that, according to Bustinduy, continues to exist in our country in terms of childhood and social protection.
During the meeting, Minister Bustinduy recalled his intention to return to the legislative initiative to regulate the advertising of unhealthy foods.
What will this rule regulate? If the current wording is maintained, the regulations will affect five categories of products that will not be able to advertise to minors regardless of the nutrient content. According to the draft of the royal decree, these are all chocolate and sugar confectionery products, energy bars, cakes and cookies. Also energy drinks and ice cream. These will be radically prohibited.
For the rest of the product categories, a nutrient content limit is established per 100 grams. In this case, they can be advertised as long as total and saturated fats, total and added sugar and salt levels remain below the limits established for each product.
In addition, it establishes the prohibition that commercial communications about these foods and beverages appear from “mothers or fathers, educators, teachers, professionals of children’s programs, athletes, artists, influencers, people or characters of relevance, public notoriety or proximity to the children, whether real or fictional, who due to their career are likely to be an example for minors.”
In this sense, the regulatory project defines the term influencer as a person with a high degree of influence on children and young people due to their “high level of followers”, without establishing a specific range of the number of followers.
The rule also provides for restrictions on the way in which advertising for these foods and beverages can be displayed on the internet.
