Letter published in Catalan newspaper EL PUNT - translated into in Spanish & Catalan.

It was supported by three other associations of widows, single mothers and the mothers group at our centre, but they only published one name – nothing else was cut although they added some paragraph breaks.

 

Mothers and other carers

El Punt  31 October 2006: letters page

 

In Catalunya, as in the rest of Spain, women and our families are condemned to survive on the worst benefits, allowances and pensions in the European Union. None of the political parties in the electoral campaign for the Government of Catalunya has committed the necessary resources to equate Catalunya with the rest of the European Union, and therefore address the current crisis – women carrying out a double or triple day of unremunerated caring work and low paid waged work.

 

With the Dependent’s Law [new services for the care of elderly or disabled people] it’s proposed to pay between 300-400€ a month to the carers– 83% of whom are women family members. Widows are forced to survive on only 435,32€ in spite of the contributions they paid whilst their husband was alive. However, the minimum wage is 599€ a month (calculated by Eurostat over 12 payments).

 

The minimum wage is also the lowest in the European Union. Is it that women can live on less? Do we eat less? Is the rent of our homes lower?

 

That’s why we have launched the petition: Implementation of commitments to mothers and carers, which calls for:

§         the implementation of the electoral promise of extending the payment of 100€ to all mothers with children under three years, independent of their work [at present only waged workers get it]

§         the establishment of a decent payment to the carers of dependent people, whether they are family members or not

The vital contribution of carers, in the first place that of mothers, to society and the economy, entitles us to receive economic recognition that reflects the value of this work and the skills of the workers who do it, and permits the economic independence that we deserve and which is essential to combat poverty, violence and the wage gap between women and men.

Sara Williams, Women Count Network, Barcelona

 

Read more about Benefits/Allowances in Spain here