AT RISK: Spanish households with children facing poverty almost doubles since last recession

THERE are around 139,000 households where children live with parents who have no income, according to Spain’s Labour Force Survey, almost double the amount in 2008 before the last recession.

Data from the survey was cited by the country’s High Commissioner of Child Poverty Pau Mari-Klose in a speech to Parliament’s Health, Consumption and Social Welfare Commission.

Mari-Klose said it was his job to stop and reverse Spain’s slide into the EU countries with the largest amount of children in poverty.

“We still have a long way to go,” the High Commissioner said.

There are currently almost 30 per cent of children at risk of poverty in Spain, 29 points above the European average. Spain came third behind Romania and Bulgaria in terms of the number of children in poverty.

Silvia Heredia, the conservative Partido Popular (PP) childhood spokesperson her centrist Ciudadanos counterpart Felix Alvarez said the government’s child poverty agency was too dependent on funds from other departments. The High Commission should be funded from the national budget, they added.

Mari-Klose said the agency’s success depended on ongoing funding for years to come