The reform of the Dependency Law guarantees that the State participates in the contributions of the main caregivers and requires ensuring the continuity of care when they are hospitalized or suffer a serious illness. The measure, however, does not mean that families can stop paying Social Security for a hired caregiver.
The key is to distinguish between the non-professional main caregiver, recognized by the Administration within the Individual Care Program (PIA), and a worker hired to provide care in exchange for a salary. They are two different legal situations.
A hired caregiver will continue generating contributions
Let’s think of a person with a degree II of dependency who needs continuous help to remain in their home. Their PIA may recognize a benefit or a home support service, but if they decide to directly hire a caregiver for 40 hours a week, they must formalize the employment relationship and assume the corresponding obligations as an employer.
The reform does not establish that Social Security will pay those employer contributions.
In 2026, the minimum wage for a full-time job is set at 1,221 gross euros in 14 payments. This amounts to 17,094 euros annually or 1,424.50 euros monthly when the extraordinary payments are prorated.
Taking that remuneration as a reference, the employer contribution can be around 317 euros monthly after applying the general reductions provided for domestic employment. The exact figure depends on the available bonuses, the applicable base, and the circumstances of the contract.
To that amount, the corresponding part for the worker is added, approximately 91 euros monthly, which is deducted from their salary. The Treasury can charge the employer about 408 euros, but around 317 euros would be business cost and the rest would come from the caregiver's payroll.
The approximate annual cost for the family would thus reach 20,900 euros: 17,094 euros of gross salary and around 3,800 euros of employer contributions. Possible expenses for hours of presence, night work, replacements, severance pay, or other conditions are not included. A live-in caregiver also cannot legally cover 24 hours a day without breaks.
When the State pays the contribution
The public coverage operates under a different assumption. The reform recognizes as the main caregiver anyone identified as such in the PIA and in the resolution that grants the economic benefit for care in the family environment.
It may be, for example, a son or daughter who leaves or reduces their work activity to care for their dependent father without pay. In that case, there is no employment contract between them. The caregiver can join the Social Security through the special agreement provided for non-professional caregivers.
The ordinary contributions of that agreement are borne by the General State Administration. The caregiver would only have to pay the difference if they decide to maintain a contribution base higher than what is publicly covered.
This mechanism does not completely arise with the reform either. The State recovered in 2019 the financing of the special agreements for non-professional caregivers. The new text expressly incorporates the right of the main caregiver to integrate into Social Security and strengthens their legal protection.
Therefore, a family that currently pays the contributions of a hired caregiver will not be able to transfer that expense to the State by identifying her as the main caregiver. To access the special agreement, it must be about non-professional care linked to the benefit for care in the family environment and recognized administratively in the PIA.
The law itself separates contracted employees
The approved text evidences that difference by ordering that, within a period of 18 months, the Interministerial Commission for the Transformation and Sustainability of Long-Term Care specifically analyze the situation of domestic workers directly hired by families.
That mandate opens the door to future measures, but does not currently create a bonus that eliminates the employer contributions of those who hire a professional caregiver.
Dependent persons can indeed receive an economic benefit for personal assistance or care and support in homes when established by their PIA. That aid can help finance the hiring, but does not automatically make the State an employer nor does it mean that Social Security assumes the contributions.
What happens if the main caregiver falls ill
The reform obliges the competent administrations to guarantee the continuity of care when the main caregiver recognized in the PIA suffers a serious illness or hospitalization that prevents them from temporarily attending to the dependent person.
The law recognizes the right, but does not determine a single resource. The autonomous communities must specify whether coverage is offered through urgent home assistance, temporary residential care, respite services, or a professional replacement.
This guarantee is also linked to the main caregiver of the benefit for care in the family environment. It does not imply that the State automatically pays the person who replaces a household employee hired by the family when they are on leave.
The 6.2 billion are not reserved for these contributions
The Government links the Dependency reform with an additional contribution of 6.2 billion euros for 2026 and 2027. That money comes from the royal decree law on dependency financing approved in June and subsequently validated by Congress, not from a budget reserved exclusively for caregiver contributions.
The resources must finance the entire system: increase in transfers to the autonomous communities, benefits, home assistance, teleassistance, new services, and reduction of waiting lists.
The reform also obliges the State to reach a contribution equivalent to 50% of the expenditure certified by the autonomous communities. However, the Government has not published a separate estimate of how much it will cost to protect the main caregivers or the temporary replacement when they fall ill.
The 6.2 billion reinforce the general financing with which the new model must be deployed, but do not constitute an individual fund to which a family can charge the fee of a professional caregiver.