In Spain, coronavirus puts the poor at the back of the line

MADRID — Erika Oliva spends at least three hours a week standing in line at a soup kitchen.

She spends a couple more at the social worker's office with her 8-year-old son, who has autism. She waits on the phone to the health center or when she wants to check if her application for a basic income program will get her the promised 1,015 euros ($1,188).

So far, it hasn't.

"They are always asking for more papers but we still haven't seen a euro. Everything seems to be closed because of the pandemic. Or you are told to go online," said Oliva. She managed to apply online, but others in her situation don't know how to use a computer or simply don't have one.

"Poor people queue. It's what we know how to do best," Oliva said.

Lower income families around the world have often suffered most from the pandemic for several reasons: their jobs might expose them more to the virus and their savings are typically lower. In Spain, their situation has been worse than in much of Europe due to the big role of hard-hit industries like tourism and weaker social welfare benefits.

"The pandemic is extending and intensifying poverty in a country that already had serious inequality problems," said Carlos Susías, president of the European Anti-Poverty Network, which encompasses dozens of non-profits. He says insufficient welfare spending, too much red tape, lack of access to technology and a resurgence of the pandemic are likely to widen what is already one of the developed world's biggest gaps between rich and poor.

Manual workers like her husband, many in essential jobs and commuting on public transportation, are at greater peril of infection. And they have less financial safety to cope when they do fall ill.

It's what many experts are describing as a "K-shaped" economic recovery. The affluent are able to recover from the crisis - many working from home - while the most vulnerable lose what economic gains they made since last decade's financial crisis.

The International Monetary Fund expects Spain's economy to shrink 12.8% this year, the most among developed economies.

Lara Contreras, a campaigner with the Intermón Oxfam aid group, said the Spanish economy is more vulnerable due to its reliance on construction and tourism, where labor conditions have been squeezed.

When the pandemic hit, halting most global travel, 1 million people lost their jobs in Spain, and the unemployment rate hit 16.3% in September. That is more than double the average in the EU or the U.S., which reports new figures Friday.

But experts warn that Spain needs to fix its job market, which is plagued with temporary and part-time contracts. Women and migrants tend to have the least job security, according to a survey by the main Catholic charity, Caritas. And yet, only one in four vulnerable households were receiving a government subsidy last year.

The pandemic can lead to a "totally broken economy," said Contreras. Her organization, Oxfam, has warned that the number of Spaniards who live under the poverty threshold — on less than 9,000 euros per year— could rise by 1.1 million from the current 9.8 million unless more is invested in health and social protection and the government broadens its flagship basic income scheme.

That program was touted in April as a way to help as many as 2.3 million families living in poverty. Although more than one million have applied for the support, only half of the requests have been processed and 136,000 applicants have been granted the subsidy. Regional governments, meanwhile, have taken the opportunity to save on similar programs to reduce poverty.

"The political decision was right, but its execution has been hellish," Contreras said.

Take Oliva's case. When her husband lost his job delivering milk to bars and restaurants in April, the family also lost a regional subsidy of 300 euros for those who work but struggle financially.

Perhaps more worryingly, competition at the so-called "hunger queues" at soup kitchens is getting fiercer. At the Servants of Jesus monastery in Vallecas, each family can now only receive food handouts once per week instead of three times, Oliva explains as she pulls zucchinis, carrots, apples, washing powder and a dozen milk cartons from her groceries' cart.

"We are now living from day to day," she said.

The lines have also been getting longer at the Somos Tribuk community pantry, one of the many grassroots networks that have popped up to help people in Vallecas. Volunteers gathered in a warehouse recently to sort out donations of food, diapers, oil and cleaning products.

Fernando Fernández Diego, who at 69 found himself with no pension and unable to sell garlic cloves in markets as he did before the pandemic, said that his household of six adults and three children now survive entirely on food handouts.

As he pulled a shopping cart with donated goods, Fernández said that with politicians "quarreling all the time" while the virus spreads he had little trust in any government help for his family.