The lawsuit by American teen Rachel Canning against her parents was a rarity, but in Spain such cases are more common.
LIVING with your parents is one thing, but hitting them up for weekly financial support when you’re a grown adult?
It might sound extreme, but that's what Gen Y-ers in Spain have been doing for years — and resorting to legal action when their cash-strapped folks say no.
While the 2014 case of American teen Rachel Canning suing her parents was considered an anomaly, in Spain it is far more common for young people to expect handouts to continue into their 20s and even their 30s.
Under Spanish law, parents are required to support their children until they reach financial independence, with no age limit, and a string of cases in recent years has cemented the rule.
But parents are fighting back, and a court this month reinforced an important caveat to the rule: It doesn’t apply to adult children who are “lazy”.
A judge in Spain’s north has rejected a 23-year-old woman’s application for parental financial support, finding that the high school drop-out is “wasting her life”, Think Spain reported.
“It can and must be concluded that the appellant’s own behaviour after reaching the age of majority — behaviour legally qualifiable as neglect, laziness and lack of productive use of time and opportunities — that has left said appellant in her current situation,” the scathing judgment read.
The decision will come as a relief to parents across a nation whose economy is yet to recover from the global financial crisis.
Spain’s unemployment rate for people aged 25 years and under is 41.5 per cent, only marginally less dismal than Greece’s 45.2 per cent.
It has made the cultural expectation that parents will support their children until they can find their feet a major burden on the older generation.
“The economic crisis has undoubtedly led to a rise in what are known as ‘parasite children’ who are happy to live off their parents,” María Dolores Lozano, president of the Association of Family Lawyers, told The Times.
“There is a generation of young people who see no problem with living off their mothers and fathers without making any effort to live independently. Some of these parents are being exploited and abused.”
The legal precedent for the rule began several years ago, when young Spaniards began suing their parents for financial support.
An adult Spanish woman who sued her divorced dad for a €500 allowance in 2015 was one of several test cases which had the effect of deepening parental responsibilities in the nation, which has the second highest rate of youth unemployment in Europe.
The man, who had been estranged from his daughter for a decade, refused to support her while she continued her university studies — but was forced to do so by court order, and his bank accounts frozen when he failed to comply, The Telegraph reported.
An appeal court upheld the decision in 2014, by which time his daughter had reached the ripe old age of 30, although the payments were reduced to €400.
Meanwhile over in the US, Rachel Canning — who reunited with her family after losing her court case — is completing a biomedical engineering degree.
Should schools and universities do more to prepare Gen Y for the workforce?4:11
On Studio 10's Daily Dilemma, the panel discuss if schools and universities should do more to prepare Gen Y for the workforce. Courtesy: Studio 10
- October 29th 2015
- 2 years ago
- /video/http://ift.tt/1MgdUFH
