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Spanish IPREM calculator

Check whether your income falls within the threshold a particular benefit requires, what the caps on your Spanish unemployment benefit are worth, and what any multiple of the IPREM comes to.

Within the threshold?
Yes
Annual threshold
€14,400.00
Headroom
€400.00
How the threshold is built: IPREM figure, multiple and result
The IPREM figure that applies(€7,200: the rule names the IPREM)€7,200.00
Multiple of that figure× 2
Annual threshold€14,400.00
The same threshold, monthly€1,200.00
The rule that fixes itart. 3.1.a) Ley 1/1996
  • The IPREM has not been revised since 1 January 2023: the last budget act approved is the one for 2023 and the extensions since have not touched it.
  • The rule names the IPREM itself rather than a substituted minimum wage, so the base is the €7,200 annual IPREM.
  • Regions and town halls may use the IPREM with multiples of their own (art. 2.4 RDL 3/2004): check the particular call for applications.
The four IPREM amounts, with the minimum wage beside them

The IPREM is not one number, it is four. Which one applies is decided by the rule that cites it.

The four IPREM amounts in force and the year's minimum wage
Daily IPREM€20.00
Monthly IPREM€600.00
Annual IPREM, 12 payments€7,200.00
Annual IPREM, 14 payments€8,400.00
Monthly IPREM plus one sixth€700.00
Monthly minimum wage, for comparison€1,221.00

These amounts have gone 3 years without revision: they are set by the ninetieth additional provision of Act 31/2022 and have applied since 2023. Over the same period the minimum wage has risen every year and is now 2.04 times the monthly IPREM.

Educational information; it does not constitute financial advice. The IPREM is set by the State Budget Act and the multiples by each sectoral rule.

Amounts in force: daily IPREM €20.00, monthly €600.00, annual €7,200.00 and €8,400.00 over 14 payments; monthly minimum wage €1,221.00. Regional and municipal calls may require multiples of their own.

Video: how to use the calculator

1

What the IPREM is and why it exists

The IPREM is Spain’s Public Multiple-Effect Income Indicator, and it was created to take away from the minimum wage a job that did not belong to it. Until 2004 the minimum wage did two things at once: it set the floor on a worker’s pay and it served as the yardstick for deciding who could access a public benefit. That tied the two decisions together, because raising the lowest wages automatically pushed people out of student grants, free legal aid or rental assistance. Article 1 of Royal Decree-Law 3/2004 detached the minimum wage from “other effects or purposes” beyond the employment one, and article 2 created the IPREM to fill the gap. Article 2.3 made the switch at a stroke: from its entry into force, references to the minimum wage in State rules “of whatever rank” are understood to refer to the IPREM, except those article 1 itself preserved.

2

What its amounts are, and why there are two annual ones

The amounts in force are in the ninetieth additional provision of Act 31/2022: a daily IPREM of €20, a monthly one of €600, an annual one of €7,200 and, fourth, €8,400. That fourth number is the one always misread, and letter d) is very precise about when it applies: “in cases where the reference to the minimum wage has been substituted by the reference to the IPREM under Royal Decree-Law 3/2004 … the annual IPREM shall be €8,400 where the rules in question refer to the minimum wage in annual terms, unless they expressly excluded the extra payments; in that case the amount shall be €7,200.” Read it carefully and you will see the higher figure is the rule and the lower one the exception, and that neither talks about “twelve or fourteen payments” of the IPREM: they talk about whether the rule you are reading came from an annual minimum wage.

3

The practical test: does the rule name the IPREM or come from the minimum wage

From that comes a test you can apply yourself, and two live rules demonstrate it. Article 3.1 of Act 1/1996 on free legal aid said “twice the minimum wage” until Royal Decree-Law 3/2013 rewrote it to name the IPREM directly. Once it stopped being a substituted reference it fell outside letter d), and its thresholds are computed on €7,200: twice is €14,400, two and a half times €18,000 and three times €21,600, which are exactly the published figures. Article 8.2.b) of Royal Decree 326/2026, by contrast, says outright “IPREM referred to 14 payments”, so the whole State Housing Plan runs on €8,400 and its three times is €25,200. Two State rules, both saying “times the IPREM”, two different numbers. When you read a multiple, first find out which of the two things the rule says.

4

And each rule bands by whatever it likes

The second surprise is that not even the bands follow the same logic. Free legal aid bands by the SIZE of the household and by nothing else: twice for someone in no household, two and a half times with fewer than four members and three times with four or more or as a large family. There is no disability band, although a disability opens another door (article 5.2). Articles 116 and 125 of the Housing Plan do the opposite: they have no band for the number of members at all, so a person living alone and a household of three share the same multiple, and instead they raise the threshold by CATEGORY of vulnerability: a general-category, single-parent or single-mother large family, a disability of 33% or more or a victim of terrorism up to 5.5 times, and a special-category large family or a disability of 65% or more up to 6 times. The same household can clear one threshold and fail the other on identical income.

5

Unemployment: the same indicator, two different arithmetics

The most searched application of the IPREM is unemployment, and it is where the same Act uses the indicator two ways in consecutive articles. Article 270.2 LGSS computes the contributory benefit as 70% of the regulatory base for the first 180 days and 60% afterwards, and 270.3 fits it between caps: a maximum of 175% of the IPREM, or 200% and 225% with one or with two or more dependent children; a minimum of 80%, or 107% with children. But its final paragraph adds the line almost nobody carries: the monthly IPREM is taken “increased by one sixth”. The percentages run on €700, not €600, and that is where the €1,225, €1,400 and €1,575 maximums and the €560 and €749 minimums SEPE publishes come from. Article 278, fourteen articles later, computes the subsidy as 95%, 90% or 80% of the monthly IPREM “in force at any given time”, with no uplift at all: €570, €540 and €480. The same 80%, two figures, and the difference is exactly that sixth.

6

What decides whether you qualify is not the IPREM

And here is the most expensive confusion of all, because it sends the reader to the wrong indicator. Article 3.1 RDL 3/2004 expressly left the income and family-responsibility requirements of unemployment protection on the minimum wage, and 3.2 moved its amounts to the IPREM. So on the unemployment subsidy, article 275.1 LGSS admits you if your income for the previous month does not exceed “75 per cent of the minimum wage, excluding the proportional part of two extra payments” (€915.75 on the 2026 minimum wage) and article 278 then pays you €570. One indicator decides whether you get in and the other how much you get. The entry ceiling is higher than the payment, and because one rises every year and the other does not, the distance between them widens on its own.

7

The freeze, which is the most useful fact on this page

Article 2.2 RDL 3/2004 orders the amount of the IPREM set “annually, in the State Budget Act … taking into account, at least, the inflation forecast or target used in it”. That has not happened. The last Budget Act approved is the one for 2023, and its ninetieth additional provision is still the operative rule: the block carries a single version and has never been amended. The extension decree-laws have kept that Act’s social provisions in force, and Royal Decree-Law 3/2026 says so in its first additional provision. Its articles 1 to 3 revalue pensions by 2.7% for 2026 and update the contribution bases without mentioning the IPREM once. The result: the indicator has stood at €600 a month since 1 January 2023. In 2004 the IPREM was €460.50 and the minimum wage €490.80, six per cent apart; Royal Decree 126/2026 leaves the minimum wage at €1,221 a month. The indicator created to replace the minimum wage is now worth less than half of it, and that is why a threshold fixed in IPREM has been narrowing in real terms every year without anyone deciding it.

8

What is still measured against the minimum wage

The list is closed and it is in paragraphs 2 and 3 of article 1 RDL 3/2004, so it can be checked. Still tied to the minimum wage are pay under the special employment relationships, the pay of the training contract, the wage guarantees and preferences of articles 32 and 33 of the Workers’ Statute (that is, the limits of the wage guarantee fund FOGASA), the financial guarantee of temporary employment agencies, the minimum Social Security contribution bases, and the access requirements for widow’s and orphan’s pensions and family benefits. Everything else moved to the IPREM. If the rule you care about is not on that list and talks about a minimum wage, it almost certainly has to be read as the IPREM.

9

What this calculator does not do

It does not cover regional or municipal thresholds, and not by oversight: article 2.4 RDL 3/2004 lets the regions, Ceuta and Melilla and local authorities use the IPREM “without prejudice to their power to set indicators of their own”, so their multiples live in their own calls for applications and there is no national register to cite. That is what the third mode is for: enter the multiple and the figure your own call names, and the calculator tells you what threshold that produces and on which base. It also does not compute the minimum living income, which has its own scale and is not IPREM-based, nor student grants, whose income thresholds are published each academic year in a royal decree of their own and are checked in the Spanish student grant calculator, nor court fees. And it does not replace the awarding body’s decision: the result is the threshold the rule sets, not a grant.

Worked example

Example: a family of four with €23,000 of gross annual income wants to know what it reaches. For free legal aid the applicable figure is three times the IPREM under article 3.1.c), on the €7,200 base: the threshold is €21,600 and they miss it by €1,400. That is not the end of it, because article 5.1 lets the Commission grant the right exceptionally and by reasoned decision up to five times, €36,000, taking account of family burdens or the fees of the proceedings. On the same €23,000, the assistance for vulnerable applicants in article 125 of the State Housing Plan also asks for three times the IPREM, but on the €8,400 base because its article 8.2.b) says “referred to 14 payments”: the threshold is €25,200 and this time they are in, with €2,200 of headroom. The same household, the same income, the same multiple, opposite answers. And if that same person loses their job with a regulatory base of €1,900, they will draw 70%, €1,330, trimmed to the €1,575 maximum that applies with two children… unless they have none, in which case the maximum is €1,225 and that is what they get. From day 181 the 60% is €1,140, already under the cap, so their payment falls even though the cap has not moved.

Frequently asked questions

What is the IPREM and what is it for?
The IPREM is Spain’s Public Multiple-Effect Income Indicator, created by article 2 of Royal Decree-Law 3/2004 to replace the minimum wage as the yardstick for public benefits. It does two distinct jobs: it sets the amount of certain benefits and it decides who can access a benefit, a grant or a right. Article 2.3 provided that references to the minimum wage in State rules are to be understood as references to the IPREM, with the closed list of exceptions in article 1.
What is the IPREM and since when?
The ninetieth additional provision of Act 31/2022 sets the daily IPREM at €20, the monthly one at €600, the annual one at €7,200 and at €8,400 where the rule referred to a minimum wage in annual terms without excluding the extra payments. Those amounts have applied since 1 January 2023 and are still in force, because no later Budget Act has been approved and the extension decree-laws have not amended the indicator.
Why has the IPREM not gone up?
Because its revision depends on an Act that is not being passed. Article 2.2 of Royal Decree-Law 3/2004 says the amount is determined “annually, in the State Budget Act”, taking into account at least the inflation forecast. The last Budget Act approved is the one for 2023. The extensions since keep that Act’s social provisions in force (the first additional provision of Royal Decree-Law 3/2026 does exactly that) and they revalue pensions and contribution bases, but not the IPREM. Over the same period the minimum wage has risen every year.
What is the difference between the €7,200 IPREM and the €8,400 one?
It is not “with or without the IPREM’s extra payments”, although it is usually told that way. Letter d) of the ninetieth additional provision applies the €8,400 to rules whose reference to the minimum wage in annual terms was substituted by the IPREM, unless that rule expressly excluded the extra payments, in which case it is €7,200. The practical test is simple: if the rule names the IPREM itself, as article 3.1 of Act 1/1996 has since 2013, €7,200 applies; if it says expressly that it takes the IPREM referred to 14 payments, as article 8.2.b) of Royal Decree 326/2026 does, €8,400 applies.
How much is 3 times the IPREM?
It depends on the rule requiring it, and that is the honest answer. Three times the €7,200 annual IPREM is €21,600, which is the free legal aid threshold for households of four or more members. Three times the IPREM referred to 14 payments is €25,200, which is the threshold in article 125 of the State Housing Plan for people in a vulnerable situation. The same multiple, the same year and €3,600 apart, so it is worth checking which figure the call for applications cites before ruling yourself out.
How does the IPREM affect the amount of Spanish unemployment benefit?
It sets the caps, not the base. Article 270.2 LGSS computes the benefit as 70% of the regulatory base for the first 180 days and 60% afterwards, and 270.3 fits it between a maximum of 175%, 200% or 225% of the IPREM depending on dependent children and a minimum of 80% or 107%. Its final paragraph specifies that the monthly IPREM is taken “increased by one sixth”, that is €700 rather than €600, and that is where the €1,225, €1,400 and €1,575 maximums and the €560 and €749 minimums published by SEPE come from.
Is the unemployment subsidy also computed on the IPREM?
Yes, but on the IPREM with no uplift. Article 278 LGSS sets it at 95% of the monthly IPREM for the first 180 days, 90% from day 181 to 360 and 80% from day 361: €570, €540 and €480. Those bands apply from 1 November 2024 under Royal Decree-Law 2/2024; before that it was a single 80%. The amount does not depend on dependent children, unlike the caps on the contributory benefit.
Is the income requirement for the subsidy measured in IPREM?
No, and this is the commonest confusion. Article 3.1 of Royal Decree-Law 3/2004 expressly left the income and family-responsibility requirements of unemployment protection on the minimum wage. So article 275.1 LGSS requires that income for the previous month not exceed “75 per cent of the minimum wage, excluding the proportional part of two extra payments”, which on the 2026 minimum wage is €915.75 a month. The IPREM decides how much you are paid; the minimum wage decides whether you get in.
What IPREM threshold does Spanish rental assistance require?
Article 116.1.c) of Royal Decree 326/2026 requires that the annual income of those living in the home not exceed 5 times the IPREM, 5.5 times for a general-category, single-parent or single-mother large family, a person with a disability of 33% or more or a victim of terrorism, and 6 times with a special-category large family or a disability of 65% or more. On the €8,400 base that is €42,000, €46,200 and €50,400. Regions may add requirements of their own in their calls.
What still depends on the minimum wage rather than the IPREM?
Paragraphs 2 and 3 of article 1 of Royal Decree-Law 3/2004 give a closed list: pay under the special employment relationships, the pay of the training contract, the wage guarantees and preferences of articles 32 and 33 of the Workers’ Statute and with them the limits of the wage guarantee fund, the financial guarantee of temporary employment agencies, the minimum Social Security contribution bases, and the access requirements for widow’s and orphan’s pensions and family benefits. The remaining references moved to the IPREM.

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Author: Thorben Rasmus Idel · Reviewed by: Nahar Geva · Last reviewed: