Spain in bid to raise birth rate

26 April 2004

MADRID – More incentives could be offered to raise the birth rate in Spain, it was announced Monday.

The move came as Socialist government said it was considering a plan to offer mothers who are working at home an EUR 100 allowance each month.

In an interview for EFE, Octavio Granado, State Secretary for the Social Security, said the survival of Spain’s Social Security system depends on generating ‘incentives’ to increase the country’s birth rate.

In his opinion, other measures must also be adopted to reduce the financial burden on women.

Granado, who is married with two children, said if the system is to be fairer and more able to guarantee an increase in old-age pensions, it must correctly manage public funds.

He added that citizens have to realise the importance of their contributions to the social security system.

Granado said his department will always apply fair criteria when faced with interpreting the established laws.

As soon as he was sworn in, he granted a paternity leave to a man from Valladolid, in western Spain,  when his wife died during childbirth.

Granado added that the law cannot be used to commit injustices.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

 Subject: Spanish news