Dads entitled to 'dependent child bonus' in disability pension, not just mums

A man from Girona who was left disabled was granted a disability allowance of €1,603.43, but queried why he had not received the additional 5% which mums get when they have two or more children, either biological or adopted.

He is a father to two daughters and believed he would qualify, but the Social Security office told him the extra 5% only applied to mothers.

The dad appealed via the Spanish courts and eventually, when this failed, to the ECJ, which has ruled that only allowing the extra 5% for disabled mothers of two or more children is discrimination on gender grounds.

Spain's authorities said the 5% 'bonus' applying only to mums was part of its drive to reduce the ongoing gender pay gap which practically all countries, even in the western world, suffer from.

They pointed out that women's careers tended to be shorter and more fragmented, due to maternity leave and then typically becoming the primary carers of children in heterosexual couples.

As a result, Spain says, women tend to receive lower disability pensions than men, so the 5% increase for having kids was aimed at redressing the balance.

But the ECJ has said the 'structural differences' in men's and women's disability pensions are 'not enough' to justify one sex receiving a onus and the other not, where their situations are identical – as in, signed off work permanently and with two or more dependent children.

The photograph shows a proud dad with his new baby.