ABSTRACT
The seriousness of the Spanish economy's deterioration since 2008 is well known: it suffices to note the unemployment rate, the risk of poverty and social exclusion rate, the percentage of public deficit or the amount of public debt. Spanish authorities have adopted a series of austerity measures aimed at cutting back public expenditure, deeply affecting the legal regime of virtually all social welfare rights, including both contributory and non-contributory social benefits. This chapter provides an overview of these welfare rights cutbacks, as well as of their constitutional context and judicial reception. It focuses on those reforms relating to three of the main social non-contributory benefits: health protection, housing, and benefits for the unemployed and those in situations of dependency due to disability, illness, or age. The legal regime of social welfare rights is strongly conditioned by the four structural principles of the Spanish Constitution (SC): Social state clause; democratic State clause; rule of law clause; and autonomic State clause.
