Article 4.1.a) of Law 40/2003, for the Protection of Large Families, establishes that the general rule to access the category of special large family is to have five or more children; but families “of four children of which at least three come from childbirth, adoption or multiple permanent or pre-adoptive foster care” also have the right to do so.
For that reason, a married couple with four children, two sets of twins, born in two multiple births , requested it from the Canary Islands Ministry of Employment, Social Policies and Housing, in order to be able to access the aid and benefits reported in front of to the general category. They denied it, alleging that “the case did not fit in with the Law” , so the couple appealed to the Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands, which agreed with them, considering that the legal norm was applicable.
What the law says about large families
According to current law, large families are classified according to the number of children in:
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General. Family unit made up of three or more children, or by two children if one of them or one of the parents has a disability. Also in the case of a widowed parent with two children. And it is that each disabled or incapacitated child to work, counts as two.
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Special. With five or more children, or with four children, of which at least three come from childbirth, adoption or permanent or multiple pre-adoptive foster care.
For this reason, the Superior Court considered whether it should be understood that the three children necessary to be of a special category should come from a single multiple birth or may come from multiple multiple births. Thus, the ruling establishes that “it would not make any sense to give more favorable treatment to a single birth of triplets than to two births of twins.”
“When it comes to assessing family burdens, parenting difficulties, the physical and mental effort of parents and other similar circumstances, it is far from obvious that having two sets of twins is less burdensome than having triplets. Someone could even support which is more burdensome, because the problems derived from raising several children of the same age are repeated again “.
He adds that, from the outset, in two sets of twins there are four children (more than three) born by multiple birth: one more than the minimum number required. And he points out one more argument to recognize the request of the couple with two sets of twins: the explanatory memorandum speaks of “multiple births” in the plural.
Via | General Council of the Judiciary
Photos | iStock
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