MADRID, Spain – The family evicted in Vitoria could be adding up to 2,453 euros a month in social aid, according to an estimate attributed to a municipal report by the newspaper El Correo and reported by 20minutos. The figure has opened a political debate and has been denied by the union backing the family, which calls it false. The source text itself warns that it cannot be stated exactly how much the family receives for each concept, nor that all benefits are collected at their maximum amount.
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The eviction of a Moroccan family with six minor children in the Sansomendi neighbourhood ended, according to 20minutos’ headline, with two arrested, 19 police officers injured and 58 people identified. Afterwards it emerged that the family unit receives around 2,450 euros a month in public benefits. According to El Correo, citing a report it had access to, the family has the Minimum Vital Income, the Income Guarantee Benefit, the Housing Economic Benefit and child-linked supplements, with emergency social aid and support from the Food Bank also mentioned.
Santiago Abascal and Badalona mayor Xavier García Albiol called for a review of the criteria for granting these benefits, with Abascal criticising at a rally on Saturday that people who in his view should not be in Spain were occupying a home while being maintained with public money, and Vox proposing to prioritise Spaniards in access to social housing. The spokeswoman of the Socialist Housing Union of Euskal Herria, Karla Pisano, states in a letter that the figure is false because it is an estimate the outlet itself makes according to the family’s circumstances, though she admits they receive social aid, as any person in a situation of vulnerability should. The City Council, for its part, is said to have ruled out giving the family a flat after receiving aid and rejecting resources, according to El Correo’s headline. ç
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It is not the first time the amount of aid to an immigrant family has generated controversy, with LaBandera reporting that a Moroccan family receives more than 4,000 euros in aid in Navarra and having already covered the Vitoria eviction in the Ertzaintza’s charge against the encampment blocking the eviction. The debate revolves around a figure no one has accredited with the official breakdown, and to know how much the family really receives the detail of each benefit would be needed, which corresponds to Social Security, Lanbide and social services, while the political discussion over the criteria for accessing aid remains open in the middle of the 29 November campaign.
