Skip to main content

Spain Forces Senior Citizens to Choose Between Writing Income, and Their Pensions

3029763930_f7a309965c_bSpain is giving its writers a painful and expensive lesson in estate management.

In 2013 Spain amended its pension laws, and among the changes they made were new restrictions and penalties on income. Any senior citizen who earned more than the minimum wage (around 9,000 euros) from their creative work could see their pension docked and get hit with fines.

Writers, musicians, filmmakers and artists are being penalized for works created long ago which are still selling, while others are being forced to choose between creating new works or receiving a pension.

La Vangaurdia and other sites report that Spain is now extracting punitive fines from senior citizens who are making too much money from writing. And far from simply being a solution to Spain’s budget woes, the fines are truly punitive in scope.

There is a report of an author who lost his 30,000 euro pension and received a 100,000 euro fine because he had earned 15,000 euros for his writing. Some authors have filed suit, while others have quietly paid the penalty. According to one report, novelist Eduardo Mendoza paid a fine equivalent to four years of his pension.

3875374318_5c95d48214_oStarting in November, the new measures have been roundly denounced by writers associations and creator’s rights groups in Spain, including la Asociación Colegial de Escritores. Some have called the measures "absurd, unjust, and destructive of culture", which is absolutely true.

The groups are pressuring Spain’s labor ministry, the Ministeri d' Ocupació i Seguretat Social, to immediately cease its campaign, but the past two months of public criticism has not deterred the bureaucrats from damaging Spanish culture or from their efforts to turn Spain’s senior citizens into paupers.

As a result, some creators are forced to retire rather than risk the fines. This includes poet Antonio Gamoneda, winner of the Cervantes Prize in 2006, who called the rules nonsense and said that "I have to stop writing, because with what I earn with my writing, I can not live."

images by shordziKasia, Silvia Viñuales

Similar Articles


Comments


fjtorres January 17, 2016 um 4:21 pm

Are you sure that is the proper name of the ministry in Castillian?

Nate Hoffelder January 17, 2016 um 4:41 pm

I think that is Catalan, actually.


Medium Punch January 17, 2016 um 8:18 pm

Wow, feels like the leadership wants the country to go full dystopian future/cultural backwater.

Guess I really will have to mark Spain off my country-to-visit list. =(


puzzled January 18, 2016 um 4:07 am

This just in … Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.

Nate Hoffelder January 18, 2016 um 7:42 am

But his spirit lives on.


Daily Links: Karma revamps unlimited data plan in response to heavy users | The eBook Evangelist January 18, 2016 um 3:17 pm

[…] Spain Forces Senior Citizens to Choose Between Writing Income, and Their Pensions (The Digital Reader) – Make a little extra money and lose your pension? Deeply disturbing story. […]


La renta básica universal como alternativa a los subsidios condicionales – GAREY September 10, 2016 um 11:01 am

[…] determinada implica reducir el incentivo a buscar trabajo o a generar valor. El ejemplo de España y los escritores jubilados, por ejemplo, que pueden perder su pensión si ingresan pagos derivados de derechos de autor de sus […]


La renta básica universal como alternativa a los subsidios condicionales – MKT y Redes -> September 10, 2016 um 11:06 pm

[…] determinada implica reducir el incentivo a buscar trabajo o a generar valor. El ejemplo de España y los escritores jubilados, por ejemplo, que pueden perder su pensión si ingresan pagos derivados de derechos de autor […]


La renta básica universal como alternativa a los subsidios condicionales | Vendetory Noticias September 11, 2016 um 6:34 am

[…] n determinada implica reducir el incentivo a buscar trabajo o a generar valor. El ejemplo de Españ a y los escritores jubilados , por ejemplo, que pueden perder su pensió n si ingresan pagos derivados de derechos de autor […]


La renta básica universal como alternativa a los subsidios condicionales – agoracampusvirtual December 28, 2016 um 7:45 pm

[…] determinada implica reducir el incentivo a buscar trabajo o a generar valor. El ejemplo de España y los escritores jubilados, por ejemplo, que pueden perder su pensión si ingresan pagos derivados de derechos de autor de sus […]


Let’s end welfare – agoracampusvirtual December 28, 2016 um 7:49 pm

[…] conditional upon not working obviously reduces the incentive to seek work or to generate value. In another example from Spain, retired writers can now lose their pensions if their copyright or other earnings are above a […]


Write a Comment