The Government expands the benefit for caring for children with cancer

The Official State Gazette publishes this Thursday, November 5, 2026, Royal Decree 957/2026, of November 4, which develops the legal regime for the financial benefit for the care of minors affected by cancer or another serious illness. The regulation, approved by the Council of Ministers on November 3 upon the proposal of the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, fully replaces the regulation in force since 2011 and will enter into force two months after its publication, on January 5, 2027. The text appears in issue number 276 of the gazette, section I, pages 148258 and following, with official reference BOE-A-2026-23176.

Context: coverage since 2010 and a pending reform

The benefit was incorporated into the protective action of Social Security through the twenty-first final provision of Law 39/2010 and is regulated in articles 190 to 192 of the consolidated text of the General Social Security Law, approved by Royal Legislative Decree 8/2015. Its regulatory development was Royal Decree 1148/2011, supplemented by Royal Decree 677/2023 and by Order TMS/103/2019, which are now repealed.

The preamble justifies the reform due to the difficulties detected in proving cohabitation after annulments, separations, or divorces, in the alternation of the benefit receipt, in the updating of the regulatory base for the self-employed, and in the control of extensions. Added to this is the change in the care model and the demands from family associations, parliamentary initiatives, and the Ombudsman. The latest legal modification arrived with Royal Decree-Law 31/2026, of October 20.

The decree consists of nineteen articles, two additional provisions, one transitional provision, one repealing provision, four final provisions, and two annexes, and is issued under article 149.1.17.ª of the Constitution.

What situations and pathologies it covers

The new definition of the protected situation incorporates as equivalents to hospital admission cases that until now remained in a gray area:

• Home hospitalization.
• Outpatient or continuous treatments.
• Home care derived from specialized and complex therapies.
• Complex home care prescribed by a physician that does not fit into the previous cases.

In all of these, a medical declaration will be required to certify the non-hospital nature of the treatment and that the absence of admission responds to clinical or organizational criteria, not to a lower intensity of care. Annex I updates the list of serious illnesses and incorporates autism spectrum disorder and the Poirier-Bienvenu neurodevelopmental syndrome; Annex II contains the new medical declaration model and replaces that of Order TMS/103/2019.

Deadlines, amounts, and control

The subsidy is equivalent to one hundred percent of the temporary disability regulatory base, applying the percentage of the reduction in working hours, which must be at least 50%. If both parents or caregivers receive it simultaneously, each receives 50% of their regulatory base; alternation in periods of no less than fifteen days is also permitted.

• Duration: initial four months, a six-month extension, and thereafter, eight-month periods.
• Application: three months from the start of the reduction in working hours, with a maximum retroactivity of three months.
• Resolution: thirty days; administrative silence constitutes a rejection.
• Age: the right is maintained until age 23 and until 26 for those with a disability of 65% or higher, and exceptionally beyond that if such a degree or grade III dependency is proven.
• Control: starting from 24 months, and then every two years, a binding report from the Medical Inspection of the Public Health Service will be required, which must be issued within thirty days.

Additionally, the limitation that barred the benefit for those with a part-time workday equal to or less than 25% of a full-time position is removed, representative curatorship with full powers is recognized, and compatibility with schooling and training internships is clarified. In Ceuta and Melilla, references to the public health service are understood to refer to the National Institute of Health Management.

Impact for caregiving families

The relevance of the regulation is twofold: it expands the universe of potential beneficiaries —families with reduced part-time hours, single-parent units, separated parents with shared living arrangements, and caregivers of patients treated outside the hospital— and homogenizes the criteria of managing entities and mutual insurance companies. The Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, must develop an orienting technical guide within six months to assess the need for direct, continuous, and permanent care. During the processing, the Ministry of Health, the National Council for Disability, the autonomous communities, and the National Institute of Health Management provided reports, and hearings were granted to trade union and business organizations and the Association of Occupational Accident Mutuals (AMAT). The text is signed by King Felipe R. and endorsed by Minister Elma Saiz Delgado.

Source: Official State Gazette, no. 276, of November 5, 2026, Sec. I. General Provisions, p. 148258 (official reference: BOE-A-2026-23176).