Barcelona Societat 23

In Barcelona we are fostering people’s autonomy so that they can escape from poverty and exclusion while overcoming the logic of welfarism. Having a job is no longer a guarantee for escaping poverty. A job market where more and more people are excluded or suffer job insecurity and a housing market that forces draconian economic obstacles on households are causing a rapid growth in the number of working poor. Simultaneously, a lack of structural support condemns a significant part of the population to exclusion. This is why a guaranteed income has become a key measure, especially at a municipal level. There are no individual solutions to structural problems. How can you think about the future when your everyday needs are not covered? How can you be enterprising when you do not have the basic materials that offer a minimum amount of security?

In order to respond to these questions, Barcelona is implementing B-MINCOME, a pilot project that combines a set of innovative, pioneering policies aimed at combating poverty and exclusion in disadvantaged areas of the city. The project has a budget of €17 million, 5 of which are provided by the EU's Urban Innovative Actions programme and 12 by Barcelona City Council. The project aims to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of combining a passive policy, in the form of financial help – the Municipal Inclusion Subsidy (SMI) – with four active policies covering training and employment, the social and solidarity economy, help with renting out rooms and community participation. Since the end of 2017, the SMI has been a reality for 950 family units in ten Eix Besòs neighbourhoods, which indirectly benefits 3,761 people.

Although things are at a preliminary stage, early assessments show that, thanks to the SMI, the beneficiaries have experienced lower levels of stress and a reduction in their most immediate material worries, as well as an improvement in their general well-being. The evidence collected also indicates that the participants give priority to increasing their training, so that they do not have to depend on public benefits in the future. Receiving the SMI allows them to focus their energy on building, learning and establishing links which create a network and increase their empowerment. The implementation of the four active policies that complement this benefit is also of fundamental importance, especially because of their influence on the area and the possibility they offer for participants to reinforce their links to, participation in and cohesion with their neighbourhoods and the social and community networks they contain.

B-MINCOME is attracting the attention of other European cities, as it will make it possible to discover whether implementing municipal minimum incomes has positive effects on reducing poverty and exclusion and revitalising disadvantaged areas. This project was created in order to innovate and improve social policies, based on empirical evidence. In this way, the resulting knowledge helps us to progress towards a new social policy model which prioritises empowering people, providing them with more and better resources that enable them to escape from the various forms of poverty and exclusion in which they live. Barcelona is therefore becoming a leading and pioneering city in social innovation and in the fight against inequality.

In this issue of Barcelona Societat, the authors offer us a variety of perspectives on various aspects of income policies. Approaches that were very influential in the creation of the B-MINCOME project, but also in other measures promoted by the municipal government for transforming the way in which social services provide support for people and families in a vulnerable situation. This monograph contributes elements for discussion through theoretical reflection on and the evaluation of policies, in order to eschew the clichés and idealogical apriorisms which, in the end, make it harder to improve the tools used for combating poverty and exclusion and, ultimately, making progress in the guaranteeing of rights.

Laia Ortiz

Deputy Mayor of Social Rights

Barcelona City Council

Foreword

Foreword

Author

Albert Sales

Summary

“Spare change for food”, “I need help to feed my children” or “I’m hungry”, are regular signs on posters used by people who are begging on the pavement, in order to attract the attention of passers-by who are concentrating on their own, everyday problems or staring at the screens of their mobile phones. They know that anyone who is asking for charity is suspected of wasting the money they receive. And they are well aware of the mistrust with which city residents view their movements, they try to convince well-meaning people that the coppers they give them will go towards buying food, not alcohol, drugs or other vices. People who live on charity know that one of the regular excuses those passers-by have for ignoring the cup or box containing the coins is the fear that their donations will be wasted on drink. Hunger, on the other hand, is more emotive. We need to eat, there is no choice.

Take stand

The hard struggle against poverty and social exclusion in Barcelona

Author

Lluís Torrens

Summary

The struggle against poverty and social exclusion should be one of the main objectives all good rulers have among their priorities. This article presents the context of poverty and social exclusion in the city of Barcelona, and what strategies have been adopted to improve the living conditions of Barcelona's population in recent years, from a municipal perspective. In that sense, it highlights the difficulties and barriers that are found when trying to carefully analyse, diagnose and evaluate the context for the actions that have been adopted, and the actions carried out to counter the lack of necessary data and registers. It details what has been done in recent years and what results have been achieved, based on implemented public policies. Lastly, it makes some recommendations that should be taken into account now and in the future, in order to eradicate poverty and social exclusion in a wealthy society like ours.

In depth

The Basque experience of guaranteed income (the RGI/PCV/AES system)

Author

Luis Sanzo

Summary

The decision to implement a key plan against poverty in the Basque Country was outlined at the end of the 1990s, when the first guaranteed income system was created, led by a regional government. This movement led to the consolidation of one of the few examples of minimum income in southern Europe, with an organisation comparable to the safeguards used in the more socially advanced states of the European Union.

In depth

Rethinking poverty in Barcelona with the new European indicator, "Reference Budgets"

Authors

Irene Cussó Parcerisas, Elena Carrillo Álvarez i Jordi Riera Roman

Summary

In this article we present Reference Budgets, which are baskets of goods and services that represent the minimum resources necessary for people to reach an adequate social participation, which means that people would have the essentials to develop their various pertinent social positions and roles. The indicator has been constructed for different types of families in densely populated areas of Catalonia, taking Barcelona as a reference city. Different sources of information have been used, based on a common theoretical and methodological framework recently proposed for six European cities to configure the content of the baskets: official guides, expert consultations, survey data and focus group discussions. Apart from housing, healthy eating is the basket that carries the most weight in relation to the total budget. This indicator provides information to contextualise the at-risk-of-poverty threshold, and can also be used to guide social inclusion policies.

In depth

What about an income guarantee policy for the real city?

Authors

Lara Navarro-Varas, Sergio Porcel i Irene Cruz

Summary

The serious social impact of the economic and financial crisis that began in 2008 overwhelmed the national and regional social protection system, in such a way that a significant part of poverty management fell on the municipalities, forcing them to work through social emergency benefits as a last protection network. In the metropolitan area, the heterogeneity in the design of the benefits to each one of the municipalities did not help to reduce the increase in the inequality, but rather the opposite. The current scenario, marked by economic reactivation, but also by the start-up of the Guaranteed Citizens' Income (RGC), opens up a window of opportunity to reflect on the improvement of protection in the real city. In this sense, the article presents the results of statistically simulating a complementary benefit to the RGC in the metropolitan area, also considering the differential cost of living across the territory.

In depth

The extraordinary fund for emergency social aid for children aged 0 to 16 in Barcelona. Results of the evaluations of 2015 and 2016

Authors

Jaume Blasco i Federico A. Todeschini

Summary

In 2015, Barcelona City Council launched a call for emergency social aid for children in poverty, consisting of a grant of 100 Euros per month for a child aged 0 to 16, which consisted specifically of a payment card for spending on food, school supplies, hygiene and clothing. In this article, we describe the characteristics of this aid and we evaluate the results for the 2015 and 2016 announcements. Based on our own calculation of the poverty threshold in the city of Barcelona, based on tax data obtained by the City Council, we estimate the coverage of the aid on the group of children at risk of poverty and severe poverty, the reduction of the number of children at risk of poverty and the reduction of the poverty gap. Likewise, we describe the attributes of the recipients and analyse the territorial distribution of the aid among districts and neighbourhoods of the city.

In depth

Reflections on the implementation of a guaranteed minimum income in Barcelona city

Authors

Paula Salinas, Maria Sánchez i Maite Vilalta

Summary

The number of people at risk of poverty is very high in Catalonia, and especially in Barcelona. Faced with this situation, one of Barcelona City Council’s political priorities is to improve social protection in the city. This study offers a series of reflections on designing and implementing a guaranteed minimum income by a local authority, based on the conclusions of academic literature and other questions to be borne in mind, such as its compatibility with other benefits.

In depth

The subjective impact of the Barcelona scheme Fons 0-16 on the lives of children and adolescents and their families

Authors

Miryam Navarro i Maria Truñó

Summary

“Whoever came up with this idea is a genius because it helps us a lot.”
Fatima, a single mother with four children aged 18, 12, 6 and 3 (the youngest has diabetes).
The article synthesises the preview of results from ethnographic research to gauge the subjective effects of 0-16 Emergency Fund grants on the lives of young children, teenagers and their families. The study, which is intended to complement the quantitative evaluations of the fund carried out by Ivàlua, takes a more detailed look at the perceptions, uses, ratings, and positive and negative experiences from three perspectives: those of the children themselves, of adult family members and of social services professionals. Five preliminary ideas are set out on the subjective impact of the 0-16 Fund, linked to the improvement in the family atmosphere and less stress on relationships; the normalisation of living patterns and experiences; the empowerment of families in terms of managing household finances; uncertainty and limits relating to the grants; and dignity and the shift in outlook from charity to right.

In depth

Health Inequalities According to Poverty and Income

Authors

Xavier Bartoll, Katherine Pérez i Carme Borrell

Summary

The availability of material resources is a key determinant of people's health. There is ample evidence of a positive relationship between income and health outcomes. At the same time, the existence of socioeconomic inequalities makes achieving higher health levels for the population as a whole more difficult. Barcelona is no exception in the challenge of reducing socioeconomic health inequalities. Significant differences in the perceived level of physical and mental health achieved depending on material poverty and by income level are shown as a gradient. Having confirmed the continued presence of social exclusion and inequalities on both a local and a transnational scale, policies aimed at the most vulnerable segments of the population are needed. The most universalist policies and those aimed at levelling inequalities due to socioeconomic status also need to be reinforced.

In depth

The earnings of people with a disability in Barcelona

Authors

Dolors Cotrina, Àlex Costa, Sergi Morera i Laura Trujillo

Aummary

The current pay gap between people with and without a disability in Barcelona is 25%. This article, produced jointly by the Municipal Institute for Persons with Disabilities (IMPD) and the Municipal Data Office (OMD), examines this pay difference based on the statistical source of the Ongoing Sample of Working Lives (MCLV), which potentially provides an annually updated snapshot of the job market of the population of Barcelona. This is the first time the disability pay gap has been examined at this territorial level. Now the IMPD’s goal is to monitor this gap annually and develop inclusion policies based on the information it provides.

Experiencies

Experimenting with Income Support in the Netherlands: Utrecht

Authors

Timo Verlaat i Marcel de Kruijk

Summary

Numerous governments and private initiatives are currently planning or have recently begun to experiment with new forms of income support, sometimes similar to or at least inspired by the concept of basic income. The B-MINCOME project in Barcelona, which was launched at the end of 2017, is one example. Our article concerns the study ‘Weten wat werkt’ (English: What works), which is currently taking place in Utrecht and is one of six independent municipal experiments on income support in the Netherlands. As the research is still running at the time of writing this article, unfortunately we cannot focus on results. Instead, we will elaborate on how the experiment came into being, describe the experimental design, and compare what is happening in Utrecht to other ongoing experiments around the world.

Experiencies

The B-MINCOME project. Municipal innovation on guaranteed minimum incomes and active social policies

Authors

Bru Laín, Sebastià Riutort i Albert Julià

Summary

In recent years there has been a growing interest in implementing more effective public policies to improve the living conditions of people in vulnerable situations. To design and implement these policies they need to be backed up with evidence that facilitates well-informed decisions. This need has given rise to B-MINCOME, a pilot project for fighting against poverty and inequality in the city’s deprived areas developed by Barcelona City Council. In contrast to other, similar projects based on money transfers (in Finland or the Netherlands, for example), the B-MINCOME project consists in testing the efficiency and effectiveness of combining a cash benefit (Municipal Inclusion Support) with active social-work inclusion policies in the Eix Besòs area. For the purposes of the study, 1,000 households have been selected and divided into different treatment groups and another 1,000 as a control group. The project started at the end of 2017 and is planned to last two years. Once it has finished, the results of the different treatment groups will be contrasted with those of the control group. The conclusions should provide information on which policies are the most effective for ensuring economically vulnerable and socially excluded people improve their situation (economic, educational, emotional, health, state of mind, etc.) and manage to cover their basic needs, while becoming more independent and reducing their dependence on other benefits.

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