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Date Published: 13/12/2022

ARCHIVED - Two dads in Spain awarded maternity allowance after EU Court of Justice ruling

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The European court found the Spanish social security supplement aid currently only benefits women

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Two dads in Spain awarded maternity allowance after EU Court of Justice ruling

In separate landmark cases, two dads in Spain have been awarded retrospective maternity payments after the EU Court of Justice found that the parenting benefit is discriminatory and only favours women.

The men will now receive the supplement to "reduce the gender gap" in relation to the monthly payments per child for parents who receive retirement or invalidity pensions.

The beneficiaries are a former member of the Armed Forces who retired in January 2019, and an ex-manager of a multinational firm who has been receiving a disability allowance since April 2017, both of whom have two dependent children.

Both men were represented by the law firm Jiménez Bidón Abogados, which built the cases around the fact the General State Budget for 2016 established a maternity supplement, known as the 'demographic contribution supplement', consisting of "an increase in the retirement or disability pension depending on the number of children".

Specifically, parents in receipt of either of the benefits with two dependent children were entitled to a 5% increase; 10% with three children and 15% with four or more.

This was replaced in February 2021 by a new maternity supplement "to reduce the gender gap" as the 'demographic contribution supplement' was reserved exclusively for female pensioners, excluding men.

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This distinction between beneficiaries on the basis of sex was declared discriminatory and contrary to Council Directive 79/7/EEC by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) on December 12 2019, and also by the Supreme Court.

The latter found that Article 60 of the General Social Security Law, in its version prior to 2021, was "directly discriminatory on grounds of sex by excluding male parents who are pensioners (contributory retirement, invalidity and widowhood) and who may be in a situation comparable to that of working mothers".

Both judgments established that male pensioners in receipt of a retirement or disability pension between January 2016 and February 2021 were entitled to receive this supplement under the same conditions as female pensioners, "with retroactive effect from the date on which the corresponding pension was granted".

The CJEU judgment found that it was discriminatory to recognise a right to a demographic contribution allowance for women – with at least two children – "while men who are in an identical situation are not entitled to such an allowance". The judge stated that the ruling "now leaves the door open for fathers who can prove that their contribution career has suffered as a result of the birth or adoption of a child due to the assumption of care duties to have access to the allowance".

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Image: Wikimedia

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