Child with cancer: new rules for parents' care benefit

If you cut your hours to care for a child with cancer or a serious illness, the benefit follows new rules from 5 January 2027.

If you cut your working hours to care for a child with cancer or another serious illness, Spanish Social Security pays you for the wages you lose. New rules published in the BOE, Spain's official gazette, apply from 5 January 2027.

Can you claim it?

• You are the parent, or you have the child in pre-adoption care or permanent foster care. Some legal guardians also qualify.
• You cut your hours by at least 50 %. Employees and the self-employed can claim; civil servants (funcionarios) cannot.
• Both parents work and are registered with Social Security, unless you are a single parent. If you are separated, or in cases of gender violence, the parent the child lives with can claim.
• Your child is in hospital, hospitalised at home, in ongoing treatment or needs complex care at home.
• You have paid in enough: nothing under 21; from 21 to 25, 90 days in the last seven years (or 180 in total); from 26, 180 days in seven years (or 360 in total).

The illness must be on the official list of 125 conditions. If your child was admitted before then and has not been discharged since diagnosis, you can still apply.

How much do you get, and for how long?

You get 100 % of the base used for sick leave pay (the base reguladora), in proportion to the hours you cut. If both parents claim at the same time for the same child, each gets 50 % of their own base.

It is granted for 4 months, then 6, then 8 at a time. Request each extension in the three months before it ends. Every two years you also need a report from your health service's medical inspectors (Inspección Médica).

It can continue until your child turns 23 if diagnosed before 18, or 26 with a disability of 65 % or more recognised before 23.

What should you do now?

1. Ask your child's doctor in the public health system for the official medical declaration, even if treatment is private.
2. Ask your employer for certificates showing your start date, the percentage cut and your contribution base. If you are self-employed, declare your cut against a 40-hour week.
3. Apply to your mutua (the one that covers you for work accidents) or to Social Security within three months of cutting your hours. After that, you are paid back three months at most. No reply within 30 days means a refusal. You can apply in person or online; if your login fails, see how to fix digital certificate and Cl@ve errors.
4. If you are separated, get a padrón certificate proving your child lives with you.