Social Security

Dependent Child or Minor in Foster Care

• "A child or minor in foster care" <2>will be considered as someone that lives with or financially depends on the recipient.

Unless proof is provided to the contrary, it will be understood that economic dependency exists when the child or minor in foster care lives with the recipient. The situation of living together is not broken by temporary separation due to studies, the work of the parents, adoptive or foster parents, medical treatment, rehabilitation or other similar causes.

The status of the dependent child or foster child will not disappear due to a carrying out a salaried job, as an employee or self-employed, as long as the child continues to live with the beneficiary and the annual income earned from the job does not exceed 100% of the SMI  in force at any given time, calculated on an annual basis.

• It will be considered that the child or minor in foster care "will not be the responsibility" of the recipient:

• If the income received for their job or an income replacement benefit is more than 100% of the aforementioned SMI .

• When they receive a contributory pension from a Spanish or foreign social protection scheme, different from the orphanage pension or pension for family members of grandchildren and siblings.

UP

Beneficiaries

Parents, adoptive parents or foster parents will be entitled to the financial allocation for dependent children or foster children, as long as:

• They have their legal residence in Spain. This condition will be considered to have been met if workers relocated by their company outside Spain have assimilated contributor status and make contributions to the relevant Spanish Social Security scheme.
  
  For absences from Spain of less than 90 days throughout each calendar year or for absences due to illness that has been duly justified, residence will not be considered to be interrupted.  

• They have dependent children or foster children under the age of 18, or have older dependents with a degree of disability greater than or equal to 65% and are resident in Spain. This requirement will be considered to have been fulfilled for children or foster children that accompany workers posted by their companies outside Spain.

• They are not entitled to the same types of benefits in any other social protection scheme.

• They do not receive an  annual income, of any type, above 11,376.66 euros. This amount will increase by 15% for each dependant child or foster child, starting from the second child and for every child thereafter. No income limit is required for acknowledging the status of beneficiary due to having a dependant child or foster child with disabilities.
  
  In the case of large families, annual earnings must not exceed 17,122.59 euros for families with 3 dependent children. This amount increases by 2,773.39 euros for each dependent child after and including the fourth child.
  
  If the parents or adoptive parents live together and the combined income of both parents exceeds the indicated limit, neither parent will be recognised as having beneficiary status. This same rule applies when permanent or pre-adoptive foster care comprises two people who make up a single family unit.

• However, they may still be beneficiaries if their annual earnings, being greater than the amounts indicated, in the previous paragraphs are, for any reason, less than the amount that results from adding to this figure the product of multiplying the annual allocation per child or foster child by the number of dependent children or foster children.

UP

Other Beneficiaries

• Orphans of both parents or adoptive parents under the age of 18 or with a degree of disability greater than or equal to 65%.. 

• Children who are not orphans but have been abandoned by their parents or adoptive parents, as long as they are not in permanent or pre-adoptive foster care and they meet the age or disability requirements described in the previous point.
  
  If the children are non-disabled orphans or abandoned minors, their annual income, including, if applicable, the orphan's pension or the family members' pension, must not exceed the established income  limit .

• Disabled children over the age of 18 that have not been legally recognised as disabled  and who are able to work (which is assumed when no such proof of legal disability has been provided), are beneficiaries of the allocations which, by virtue of having these children, the parents or adoptive parents would have been due, after having previously submitted an application to this end that had been witnessed by said parents.

UP

Determination of the Beneficiary

In cases where families live together:  

If both parents, adoptive parents, or where appropriate, foster parents, find themselves in the necessary circumstances for being beneficiaries for the same originator, the beneficiary will be:

• One of them, by mutual agreement. It is assumed that this situation exists when the benefit is requested by one of the recipients.

• If there is no agreement, which must be expressly communicated to the INSS , the rules regarding parental authority and custody set forth in the Civil Code will apply. In such a case, the INSS will make a decision through which and with prior recognition, where appropriate, of the right to receive the benefit, to suspend the payment until the appropriate court decision has been made.

In cases of legal separation, annulment or divorce: 

The beneficiary will be anyone with a dependent child or foster child, even if that person is different to the individual receiving the benefit before the legal separation, annulment or divorce took place, as long as their income does not exceed the annual income limits established for being a beneficiary.

However, when the circumstances for being recipients are present in both the parents or foster parents, the benefit will be received:

• By one of them, determined by mutual agreement.. It is assumed that this situation exists when the benefit is requested by one of the recipients.

• If there is no agreement or express legal provision, the recipient will be the person awarded custody of the child or minor.

• If joint legal custody has been agreed by court decision each parent will receive, upon prior request, the benefit according to the proportion of time they have been awarded custody of the child or minor. 

The provisions in this section will be applied in cases of rupture of a family unit based on a similar emotional relationship to that of a marriage.

For orphans of parents or foster parents, and for children who are not orphans but have been abandoned by their parents:

• The allocation will be paid to the legal representatives or the persons with the minor or "legally incapacitated" disabled person in their care, as long as they comply with the obligation to look after and educate them.

• Or, the orphan or abandoned child will be paid.

UP

Calculable revenues or incomes.

• To prove the income limit requirement, the earnings from work, capital gains, and financial activities, as well as any property and rights arising from benefits and those which are considered as such shall be taken into account, in accordance with the following rules:

• Income will be calculated as gross income, except that resulting from economic activities carried out on a self-employed basis, which will be calculated as a net value, with the social contributions amount added to this.

• For investment income, only the interests and other types of returns obtained by the recipient will be calculated, but not the capital itself.

• When the beneficiary has rental property, its income, determined in accordance with the provisions of the Consolidated Text of the Law on IRPF , approved by Royal Legislative Decree 3/2004, of 5 March, shall be taken into account. If the property was not rented, income will be valued according to the regulations established for attributing property income in the aforementioned revised text.

• The exempt income referred to in paragraphs a), b), c), d), e), i), j), n), o), q), r), s), t), x) and z) of Article 7 of the Consolidated Text of the Law on IRPF  , the family benefits described in paragraph h) of the aforementioned article, or the third party supplement, in the case of serious disability, shall not be taken in to account.

• To calculate income, the income received by the beneficiaries in the tax year prior to the birth or adoption will be taken into account.

• For abandoned minors or orphans of both parents, only the income they receive will be calculated so long as they are not in a permanent or preadoptive fostering scheme.

• When both parents foster parents live together, their annual income will be calculated jointly. For such purposes, it is presumed that the spouses live together, unless proven otherwise, and under no circumstances will a temporary and circumstantial separation that arises as a result of work or other similar causes be considered to be a lack of cohabitation.

• In cases of cohabiting with just one parent or foster parent, due to the death of one of them or a marriage annulment, legal separation or divorce, the income that the beneficiary receives for the dependent children as their legal representative and which comes from the orphan's pension and the family members' pension will not be taken into consideration.

UP