Minimum Vital Income

• 1. What information and services are available on minimum living income?

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  In addition to the information provided in this consultation section, which answers the most frequently asked questions about the minimum living income, other services are available:

  • On this access you will find a summary of the most important aspects of the legal regulation of the minimum income.
  • You have theMinimum Living Income Simulator at your disposal to check whether you qualify for the Minimum Living Income benefit and to find out the approximate amount you may be entitled to.
  • To apply for the minimum living income, access the Minimum Living Income Service on our website.
  • There is an information number on minimum living income: 900 20 22 22.

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• 2. Do I have to go to an office to apply for the minimum living allowance?

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  It is not necessary to go to a Social Security office (CAISS) to apply for the minimum living allowance.

  For the health and safety of all we ask you to avoid risks and request an appointment to attend in person and only if it is essential.

  Therefore, it is highly recommended to use the web services of the Spanish National Social Security Institute (INSS) on the Social Security’s E-Office, where citizens, with a mobile phone, a tablet or from a computer, can securely submit their application any day of the week and at any time, without the need for an electronic certificate or Cl@ve, or to make any trips

  
  

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• 3. How can I apply online?

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  There are two ways to apply online :

  • If you do not have an electronic certificate or cl@ve password to identify yourself, you can use the Minimum Vital Income Service without a certificate.

  You will be given a form in which you will have to include your information and that of the people who, if any, are part of your cohabitation unit. You will need to attach an image of your identity card and the documents needed to resolve your application.

  • If you have an electronic certificate or cl@ve password, we recommend that you use the  Minimum Vital Income Service with a certificate or password. You will be given a PDF form in which to include the necessary information and, as in the previous case, you will have to attach an image of your identity document and the documents needed to resolve your application. You can use this service through another person with an electronic certificate or cl@ve password, who will act as your representative for this procedure.

  
  

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• 4. How soon will my application for minimum living allowance be resolved?

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  The maximum time limit for resolving your application is six months from the date of submission.

  Once this period has elapsed without an express resolution, the application will be understood to have been rejected due to administrative silence. However, the National Institute of the Social Security shall expressly decide on the applications submitted, even if more than six months have elapsed since they were submitted. Applications submitted by 31 December 2020, if approved, retain economic effects from 1 June 2020.

  Once the application for the benefit has been received, the competent body, prior to allowing the application, will check whether the beneficiaries living alone or forming part of a cohabitation unit, on the basis of the data declared in the application submitted, meet the requirement of economic vulnerability. The decision of inadmissibility will be issued within 30 days, and may be the subject of a prior administrative complaint, which will be limited to the cause of inadmissibility. The allowance of the application shall not prevent its rejection if, during the investigation of the procedure, the managing body carries out new verifications that determine the non-fulfilment of the requirement of economic vulnerability.
  

  
  

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• 5. What if I forgot to send any necessary documents with my application?

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  From the Spanish National Social Security Institute (INSS) we will contact you to indicate the necessary documentation to resolve your application and give you a deadline to submit it.

  In order to speed up the process, it is very important that you indicate a telephone number or e-mail address in your application so that we can contact you, in addition to your habitual home address.

  
  

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• 6. If I have any questions, how can I find out?

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  In this section of the website you will find useful information on the minimum living allowance.

  In addition, the Social Security website has a specific section with complete information on the minimum living allowance.

  You can also use the MVI Calculator to check whether, with the information you provide, you could be entitled to the service and the amount that would correspond, if applicable. Please note that this calculator is made available to you for informational purposes only and may not create any rights or expectations of rights. To request the benefit you must make your application through our electronic services, with or without a digital certificate or Cl@ve.

  
  

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• 7. What is a cohabitation unit?

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  A cohabitation unit consists of all persons living in the same home, united by marriage or registered as domestic partners, and their family members up to the second degree by consanguinity,  affinity or adoption, or other persons living in the home under foster care for the purpose of adoption or permanent foster care.

  The benefit may be paid to persons who, without forming part of the cohabitation unit or forming part of an independent cohabitation unit, live in the same household with others with whom they have one of the aforementioned family ties. To this end, they must be in one of the following situations:

  a) When a woman – a victim of gender violence – has left her habitual family home accompanied or not by her children or minors in foster care for the purpose of adoption or permanent family foster care

  b) When, due to the commencement of separation, annulment or divorce proceedings, or the dissolution of the formally constituted domestic partner scheme, a person has left their habitual family home, whether or not accompanied by their children or minors in foster care for the purpose of adoption or permanent family foster care. In the case of domestic partners who have ceased living together, the person claiming the benefit must prove, where applicable, that the procedures for allocating custody and guardianship of the children have been initiated.

  c) When it is accredited to have abandoned the home due to eviction, or because it has become uninhabitable due to accident or force majeure, as well as other cases that are established by regulation.

  In the cases foreseen in paragraphs b) and c), an independent unit shall only be considered during the three years following the date on which the events indicated in each of them occurred.

  When people who do not share the aforementioned family ties live together in the same household, those who are at risk of social exclusion – that must be accredited by social services – may be entitled to the minimum vital income.

  The cohabitation units must have been continuously constituted for at least   six months prior to making the application.

  When they are members of a cohabitation unit, beneficiaries must be at least 23 years of age, or be an adult or an emancipated minor if they have children or minors under  foster care for the purpose of adoption or permanent family foster care or double orphans when they are the only members of the cohabitation unit and none of them is 23 years of age.
  

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• 8. What requirements must I meet to qualify for the minimum living allowance?

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  The basic requirements are:

  • To have legal and effective residence in Spain on a continuous basis during the immediately preceding year.
  • To be in a situation of economic vulnerability, which is accredited by taking into consideration your wealth and your level of income and earnings.
  • To have applied for the current pensions and benefits to which you may be entitled, under the terms to be fixed by regulation. Social wages, minimum insertion income or similar social assistance aid granted by the Autonomous Communities are excluded.
  • That the cohabitation unit has been formed for at least a year.
  • In addition to these general requirements, you must meet a number of conditions relating to your personal circumstances and/or those of your cohabitation unit.

  
  

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• 9. I live alone and there are no people who depend on me. Can I be entitled to the benefit?

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  Yes, you must be at least 23 years old and not married (unless you are in the process of separation or divorce) or  in a domestic partnership.

  There is no age requirement and no separation or divorce proceedings are not required for women of legal age or emancipated minors who are victims of gender-based violence or human trafficking and sexual exploitation.

  Persons aged between 18 and 22 who come from residential centres for the protection of minors in the Autonomous Communities and have been under the guardianship of Public Entities for the protection of minors in the three years prior to reaching the age of majority, or who are absolute orphans, provided that they live alone and are not part of a cohabitation unit, may also receive it.
  

  If the applicant, if under 30 years of age, must prove to have lived independently in Spain for at least two years prior to the application, except in the case of persons of legal age who come from residential centres for the protection of minors in the Autonomous Communities. It is understood that a person has lived independently if they can prove that their address has been different to that of their parents, guardians or foster carers during the two years immediately prior to the application and that during this period they remained  registered with the Social Security, State Pension Scheme or a mutual fund alternative to the Special Scheme for Self-Employed Workers for at least twelve months – whether continuous or not.

  If aged over 30, they must prove that their address in Spain differed to that of their parents, guardians or foster carers during the year prior to the application.

  The requirements of independent living, for minors under 30 years of age, and of domicile other than that of the parents, in the case of those over 30 years of age, are not required when the cessation of cohabitation with the parents, guardians or foster parents was due to the death of the latter. Nor will they be required for persons who, as victims of gender-based violence, have left their habitual residence, for homeless persons, for those who have initiated separation or divorce proceedings or for victims of trafficking in human beings and sexual exploitation.
  

  Permanent users of a social, health or public health residential service benefit are not entitled to the benefit, except in the case of women victims of gender-based violence or victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation.

  
  

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• 11. Must all members of the cohabitation unit have legal residence in Spain?

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  Yes, whether it is an individual beneficiary or the members of a cohabitation unit, all must prove legal and effective residence in Spain continuously and uninterruptedly for at least the year prior to submitting the application, with the exception of:

  • Minors incorporated into the cohabitation unit by birth, adoption, foster care or permanent family placement.
  • Women victims of gender-based violence.

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• 12. Do I lose my resident status in Spain if I travel abroad?

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  Habitual residence in Spain is maintained even if you take trips abroad that do not exceed a total of 90 days in each calendar year or are due to justified causes of illness.

  The departure and stay abroad of any member of the cohabitation unit must be communicated in advance to the Spanish National Social Security Institute (INSS), indicating the duration of the stay.

  Non-compliance with the obligation to notify the INSS of absences or trips  of more than three months will result in the suspension of payment of the benefit, without prejudice to the fact that this will entail the appropriate sanctions and the obligation to reimburse the benefits received.
  

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• 13. How is the benefit paid?

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  The benefit will be paid monthly and is made by bank transfer to an account of the holder of the benefit.

  The minimum living allowance is non-transferable. It may not be offered as a guarantee of obligations, nor be the object of total or partial assignment, compensation or discount, retention or seizure, except for the compensation that may be made in payments by the INSS in the event of having received amounts greater than those corresponding to the criteria and requirements for setting the amounts to be received.

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• 16. If I am a beneficiary of the minimum living allowance, do I have to pay the contribution for medicines?

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  No, the beneficiaries of the minimum living allowance are exempt from the user’s contribution to the outpatient pharmaceutical benefit.

  
  

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• 17. If I am a beneficiary of the minimum living allowance, do I have to pay the contribution for medicines?

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  No, the beneficiaries of the minimum living allowance are exempt from the user’s contribution to the outpatient pharmaceutical benefit.

  
  

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• 18. What income and earnings are taken into account for the recognition of the benefit?

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  The situation of economic vulnerability is determined by taking into account the average monthly income and computable annual earnings of the previous year.

  When the requirement of financial vulnerability is not met in the previous year, it is possible to apply, from 1 April to 31 December of the current year, for recognition of the right to the minimum vital income benefit in those cases in which the situation of financial vulnerability has arisen during the current year.

  In order to accredit the situation of economic vulnerability during the current year, only the income requirement will be taken into account, considering the proportional part of the income that the individual beneficiary or, if applicable, the cohabitation unit has had during the time elapsed in the current year.

  In any case, for the calculation of income for the current year, unemployment benefits or subsidies, in any of their forms, including the Active Insertion Income, or the allowance for cessation of activity, received during that year will not be taken into account, provided that at the time of the application for the minimum living income benefit, the entitlement to those benefits or subsidies has been terminated due to exhaustion, renunciation, or exceeding the income limit foreseen, where applicable, for maintaining the entitlement and without being entitled to a benefit or subsidy.

  It is also required that in the financial year immediately preceding the year of application the individual beneficiary or, where applicable, the cohabitation unit has not exceeded certain income and wealth limits.

  In any case, in the year following the year in which the minimum living income benefit is recognised, the amounts paid shall be regularised, taking into account the information available to the Tax Authorities, giving rise, where appropriate, to the return of benefits unduly received.
  

  
  

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• 16. Can I get child benefits and the minimum living allowance?

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  The two benefits are incompatible.

  From the entry into force of the Royal Decree-Law establishing the minimum living allowance, no new applications may be submitted for child or dependent minor benefits under the Social Security system, which will be done away with.

  
  

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• 15. What obligations do I assume as a recipient of the minimum vital income?

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  The obligations assumed by the recipients of the benefit are:

  a) Provide accurate documentation and information for the accreditation of requirements and the maintenance of the benefit, as well as to ensure the receipt of notifications and communications.

  b) Communicate any change or situation that could lead to the modification, suspension or termination of the benefit, within 30 calendar days from the date of its occurrence.

  c) Communicate any change of address or change of situation in the municipal register that personally affects the aforementioned holders or any other member of the cohabitation unit, within 30 calendar days of the change occurring.
  

  d) Reimburse the amount of benefits unduly received.

  e) Notify the INSS in advance of any departure abroad of both the holder and the members of the cohabitation unit, for a period, continuous or otherwise, of more than 90 calendar days during each calendar year.

  f) File a Personal Income Tax return each year.

  g) Where the minimum vital income benefit is compatible with income from work or economic activity, fulfil the conditions established for access to and maintenance of that compatibility.

  h) Participate in the inclusion strategies promoted by the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration.

  
  

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• 10. Which member of the cohabitation unit should apply for the benefit?

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  Any member of the cohabitation unit with legal capacity to act may apply for the benefit, although the application must be signed by all members.

  Must be at least 23 years of age. If you have children or minors in care for the purpose of adoption or permanent family placement, you may apply for the benefit provided that you are an adult or an emancipated minor.

  The person who applies for the benefit on behalf of a cohabitation unit shall represent that unit.

  
  

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• 21. ¿El complemento de ayuda para la infancia tiene la naturaleza de ingreso mínimo vital (IMV)?

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  Yes. For all intents and purposes, the child support supplement is in the nature of a minimum living income, as it is a supplement to the MLI and forms part of it.

  Thus, the benefits or aid incompatible with the minimum living income will also have this character even if only the child support supplement is received.

  In addition, once the benefit is recognised, all the benefit recipients of the minimum living income, including those who are only recipients of the child support supplement, are obliged to file an annual personal income tax return.
  

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• 20. Do I have to apply for the child support supplement?

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  You can apply for it at the INSS at imv.seg-social.esfor cohabitation units that include minors among their members, meet all the necessary requirements for the granting of the minimum living income and those established with regard to the maximum limits on eligible income, net worth and asset test.

  If you are entitled to the minimum income, the supplement will be paid together with the benefit and you do not have to make a separate claim. If you are only entitled to the supplementary allowance, you must also apply for a minimum living income.

  
  

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