A/HRC/44/40/Add.2 G. Domestic and care workers 81. Estimates of the number of domestic workers in Spain range from an official figure of 453,000 domestic employees122 to a civil society estimate of 700,000 people working as household or care workers. Women account for 97.9 per cent of them 123 and they are marginalized by Spanish law, which places such work in a “special regime” with fewer rights.124 82. Civil society reported that one in three domestic workers in Spain lives in poverty, and many are working in the informal economy for employers who are not making social security payments. They can work double their contracted eight hours per day and earn just 800 euros per month, yet typically have to rent a room to stay for their weekly night off, while the cost of food can be deducted from their salary. Undocumented workers are especially vulnerable to exploitation and some employers have reportedly confiscated workers’ passports. 83. At the Servicio Doméstico Activo, a centre that plays an extremely important role in promoting the rights and well-being of domestic workers, the Special Rapporteur heard troubling accounts of working conditions, women working for years in what felt like a “jail,” facing sexual harassment, working constant uncompensated overtime and lacking access to social security or pensions. “I’m about to turn 72 and I continue to struggle,” one woman said. The existence of the centre is now apparently under threat because the Government of Madrid has withdrawn funding. Given the extent of the need, it would be a tragedy if it were forced to close. 84. The new coalition Government has pledged to ratify ILO Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189). Full implementation of the terms of the Convention would mark a major step forward in Spain. V. Key recommendations 85. In addition to the many recommendations outlined above, it is of particular importance that the Government should: (a) Adopt a national minimum income scheme that enables recipients, including persons under 25, to live in dignity, to move freely within Spain, to avoid burdensome administrative requirements and not be punished for taking low-paid or temporary work. A means-tested national child benefit and a universal, noncontributory child and family benefit scheme should be introduced; (b) Take seriously the right to housing. At a minimum this should include new right-to-housing legislation, greatly increased public housing investments, fiscal disincentives for leaving housing vacant, serious consideration of sophisticated and flexible rent control arrangements in key cities, measures to discourage manipulation of housing markets by “vulture funds”, action to prevent the privatization of existing low-cost housing stock, enhanced protection for vulnerable households from utility shut-offs and more support for those at risk of homelessness; (c) Undertake a full review of the education system to address alarming levels of early school-leaving, grade repetition and school segregation. Cover the full education-related costs of children at risk of poverty and introduce national programmes for the education of children aged 0 to 3 and for after-school support; (d) Make the tax system more progressive and raise total fiscal revenues so that they more closely align with the European Union norm, thus providing the 122 123 124 18 National Institute of Statistics, “Active population by sex and occupation. Absolute values and percentages with respects to the total of each occupation”. Ibid. Futuro en Común, Una Agenda 2030 Transformadora para las Personas y la Planeta (October 2018), p. 18.