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COST OF LIVING

How singles and families in Spain can get monthly benefit of up to €1,462

Spain's Ingreso Mínimo Vital provides financial support for lower-income households. Here's what you need to know, how much you may eligible to get based on your circurmstances, and how to apply.

Published: 29 January 2024 09:10 CET
Updated: 3 February 2024 08:27 CET
How singles and families in Spain can get monthly benefit of up to €1,462
Everything you need to know about getting Spain's Ingreso Mínimo Vital. Photo: Pixabay/Pexels

Spain’s Ingreso Mínimo Vital (IMV) is an allowance available to vulnerable households to provide them with a minimum monthly income. It is a tiered system, and the amount depends on the number of people in the family.

Here’s what you need to know.

What are the requirements for Spain’s IMV?

You must meet a series of requirements to be eligible for it.

To begin with, you must live in Spain, and be legally resident here.

READ ALSO: CONFIRMED: Spain to increase minimum wage by €54 a month

It is also necessary that the family unit you are applying on behalf of has lived together for more than 6 months.

Obviously, as this is a state aid, your family must be in real need of the help. In order to establish this, the income of all the family members living together will be reviewed, as well as their assets, to make sure that only the most vulnerable families receive the IMV.

How much is the IMV in 2024?

For 2024, the IMV amount has been increased by 6.9 percent. They are not fixed amounts, but depend on each situation and each family, their circumstances and number of dependents.

One single adult: €604.38 per month
One adult and one child: €785.7 per month.
One adult and two children: €967.01 per month.
One adult and three children: €1,148.33 per month.
One adult and more than three children: €1,329.65 per month.
Two adults: €785.7 per month.
Two adults and one child: €967.01 per month.
Two adults and two children: €1,148.33 per month.
Two adults and three or more children: €1,329.65 per month.
Three adults: €967.01 per month.
Three adults and one child: €1,148.33 per month.
Three adults and two or more children: €1,329.65 per month.
Four adults: €1,148.33 per month.
Four adults and one child: €1,329.65 per month.

In the case of single-parent families or families with a disabled child, the amounts are as follows:

One single-parent adult and one child: €918.66 per month.
One single-parent adult and two children: €1,099.90 per month.
One single-parent adult and three children: €1,281.30 per month.
One single-parent adult and more than three children: €1,462.62 per month.

How do I apply for the IMV?

Spain’s Social Security system has set up a page specifically for requesting the IMV, and there’s also a handy simulator tool on the site too so you can have an idea of how much you could be entitled to. You can find that here.

Otherwise, applications can also be done through the normal Social Security site, which you can find here. 

From there, click on the ‘ciudadanos‘ tab and in the drop-down menu click on the section ‘familia‘.

This will take you to a page where you have several options for logging in with an electronic certificate or other methods such as the Pin Cl@ve.

READ ALSO: Access all areas: how to get a digital certificate in Spain to aid online processes

From there, choose the option Ingreso Mínimo Vital. Here you’ll be asked for information on your financial situation, along with your personal details and your ID card and e-mail address in order to access the application.

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For members

PROPERTY

BBQs, nudity and plants: What are the balcony rules in Spain?

Though many people hang laundry, plants, and flags from their balcony, in Spain the rules on what you can and can't do on 'el balcón' are not well-known.

Published: 8 May 2024 17:13 CEST
BBQs, nudity and plants: What are the balcony rules in Spain?

Imagine the scene: you’ve just bought or signed the lease on your dream apartment. It’s bright and airy, with plenty of space, and even has a nice-sized balcony to get some fresh air on. You can do whatever you want there, right? 

Not exactly. In Spain the rules on what you can and can’t do on a balcony (even if it’s private) depend on a few factors, namely the regional and local rules, as well as getting the approval of the building’s homeowner’s association – known in Spain as la comunidad.

Some of them might just surprise you.

READ ALSO: ‘La comunidad’: What property owners in Spain need to know about homeowners’ associations

There are four main things or activities on balconies that could potentially put you on the wrong side of the local rules and even get you fined: barbecues, plants, laundry, and flags.

In all cases (even if you don’t think you’re breaking any rules) you’ll generally need to consider two things: firstly, does this affect or change the building’s façade? And secondly: will la comunidad allow it?

Barbecues

In Spain there is no national law prohibiting barbecues on private property, so in principle it is legal as long as the barbecue is lit in a private space such as your own balcony, garden or terrace, and not a shared space.

Often in Spain, the roof (usually referred to as la terrazza) is a shared space people use for storage and hanging their laundry, so be sure to check with the comunidad.

In terms of your own balcony, however, although there’s no law saying outright you can’t have a barbecue, you’ll need to take into account the rules and regulations in force in each locality or region. There may also be specific rules within the building that long-term homeowners have developed over the years.

As we will see, many of these low-level regulations are delegated to local governments and town halls in Spain, so the answer to these sorts of questions is usually: it depends where you are.

However, according to Article 7 of Spain’s Horizontal Property Law, “the owner and the occupant of the flat or premises are not allowed to carry out in it or in the rest of the property activities prohibited in bylaws, which are harmful to the property or which contravene the general provisions on annoying, unhealthy, harmful, dangerous or illegal activities.”

This basically gives your neighbours the right to complain about noise, smells, smoke and any possible fire risk in or around their building, which barbecues could plausibly fall under.

As with co-living anywhere in the world, regardless of the regional or local rules, employ some common sense: be reasonable, listen to neighbour’s concerns and take up any disputes with the President of la comunidad.

READ ALSO: What you need to know before having a barbecue in Spain

Plants

Again, with plants the responsibility falls on each local authority to set the rules. In Spain, most regions and town halls state that, as long as the architectural or structural elements of the building are not changed or weakened in any way, putting plants on your balcony is permitted.

However, note that many terraces and balconies do have maximum weight regulations that must be respected in order to guarantee their safety, which is 200kg per square metre. If this figure is exceeded (and it can be proved) you could theoretically be fined.

Laundry

Laundry lines criss-crossing the streets might be one of the more picturesque images of Spanish life, but the people doing it might actually be breaking the rules.

How do you know? You guessed it, it depends where you. You’ll need to check with your local authority on this one, though municipal regulations in Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia all regulate hanging laundry from your balcony, which is again outlined in the Horizontal Property Law.

This principally seems to be because it affects the façade of the building (a common theme when it comes to balcony rules in Spain).

In places with rules about hanging laundry from balconies, you could be fined up to 750 euros if you don’t comply with the rules.

However, according to Foto Casa, even if you live in an area where there are no bans or penalties against hanging laundry on the balcony, you’ll still likely need the permission of la comunidad.

READ MORE: Spain’s weirdest laws that foreigners should know about

What about flags?

Whether it be the Spanish flag, the Catalan, Valencian or Andalusian flags, or LGBT, trade union or football team flags, flags proudly hanging from balconies is another mainstay of Spanish life.

It’s also one of the more controversial ones too, especially within comunidad meetings. Hanging flags on the balcony, as well as allegedly altering the aesthetics and security of the building (the same concern as with laundry) often has ideological connotations that can cause conflict.

Again, as with laundry, hanging flags on the balcony will require the approval of all the owners within the community, something that must be agreed at a meeting, as per the Horizontal Property Law.

However, if the flag is placed inside the property, as it is a private property, fellow homeowners cannot oppose it, even if it is visible from the street, according to Foto Casa.

Nudity 

Article of 185 of Spain’s Penal Code only considers being naked at home to be obscene exhibitionism and sexual provocation if it affects minors, in which case it is punishable with a fine or up to a year in prison.

Therefore, you could technically sunbathe shirtless or naked on your balcony in most cases without getting into trouble, although it won’t necessarily go down well with your neighbours and/or flatmates and you be reprimanded for it.

READ ALSO: Can you go shirtless or wear a bikini in the street in Spain?

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