Benefit for caring for minors with cancer or serious illness: Royal Decree 957/2026 rewrites the regulation and extends deadlines and pathologies

The BOE of 5 November 2026 publishes Royal Decree 957/2026, of 4 November, which develops the legal regime of the financial benefit for caring for minors affected by cancer or other serious illness, known by its Spanish acronym CUME. The rule is not a partial reform: it fully repeals Royal Decree 1148/2011, which had regulated the benefit since its creation, and replaces it with a complete new regulation of nineteen articles, two additional provisions, one transitional provision, one repealing provision, four final provisions and two annexes. Its fourth final provision delays entry into force until two months after publication, that is, 5 January 2027; until then Royal Decree 1148/2011 remains in force.

The benefit, incorporated into the protective action of the Social Security by the 2011 Budget Law and regulated in articles 190 to 192 of the consolidated text of the General Social Security Law, compensates the loss of income of parents, guardians for adoption purposes or permanent foster carers who reduce their working hours to care for a minor with cancer or other serious illness, pursuant to article 37.6 of the Workers' Statute. The new regulation comes after years of claims by family associations, parliamentary initiatives and recommendations of the Ombudsman, and after partial legal amendments introduced by Law 22/2021 and Royal Decree-Law 2/2023.

Protected situation: home hospitalisation now counts as admission

The most far-reaching practical change lies in the concept of protected situation. Until now, the benefit required the illness to involve a hospital admission. Article 4 of the new royal decree expressly incorporates care situations equivalent to admission: home hospitalisation and complex outpatient treatments which, without requiring conventional hospitalisation, involve the need for direct, continuous and permanent care by the carers. The rule thus responds to the transformation of the health system, which has moved much high-complexity care out of the hospital, and seeks a homogeneous application throughout the territory.

The compatibility of the benefit with the schooling of the beneficiary and with training placements is also clarified, provided that the need for direct care subsists. And the figure of representative guardianship is regulated for the first time, as well as the regime applicable in cases of nullity, separation, divorce or termination of the cohabiting partnership, one of the points that had generated the most conflict in proving cohabitation. In those cases, and also when the status of victim of gender violence is accredited, the benefit granted to the person living with the beneficiary will only cease when that person is the one who leaves the employment relationship, and not when the other parent does.

Longer deadlines and reinforced control

Article 12 sets the birth of the right from the very day the working time reduction begins, provided the application is filed within the following three months; after that period, the maximum retroactivity is three months. The benefit will be granted for an initial period of four months, extendable a first time for a period of six months and, successively, for periods of eight months, while the need for care subsists, accredited with the corresponding medical declaration. The extension may be requested within the three months prior to the end of the granted period.

The new control starts after the first twenty-four months: from that moment, and every two years, the extension request must be accompanied by a binding report from the Medical Inspectorate of the Public Health Service accrediting the subsistence of the illness and of the need for care. The report must be issued within a maximum period of thirty days; if not issued, the benefit will be considered provisionally extended until it is sent to the managing entity or mutual insurance company, with one limit: if during the eight-month provisional extension period the report does not arrive, the benefit is extinguished, unless a new application is filed with the physician's report.

As for maximum duration, article 13 maintains the benefit until the age of twenty-three when the illness diagnosed before the age of majority persists, and until twenty-six if, before the age of twenty-three, a disability equal to or greater than 65 percent is accredited. The major novelty is the exceptional extension beyond the age of twenty-six when the beneficiary accredits a disability equal to or greater than 65 percent or has been granted grade III dependency status, provided that cohabitation and the need for care persist. The cohabitation requirement will be deemed met even if the beneficiary temporarily resides in a residential facility or in respite care, if the beneficiary carer maintains effective and continuous care.

Self-employed, multiple employment and regulatory base

The regulation devotes specific attention to self-employed workers. For them, the protected situation consists of the partial cessation of activity, and the provisional contribution bases taken into account during the receipt of the benefit will be considered definitive, without annual regularisation pursuant to article 309.1 of the consolidated text of the General Social Security Law; nevertheless, they may be updated at the request of the interested party with effects from the first day of the month following the request. This is a response to the difficulties detected with the new contribution system based on the real income of the self-employed.

In situations of multiple employment, the benefit will be granted in proportion to the percentage of reduction of the total working hours in the different jobs, taking as the regulatory base the contribution bases of each company, up to the maximum contribution ceiling. Part-time workers will be entitled provided they reduce their working hours by at least 50 percent, and the percentage will be calculated against the working hours of a comparable full-time worker in the same company and workplace.

New pathologies in the list of serious illnesses

Annex I updates the list of serious illnesses giving access to the benefit and incorporates, among others, autism spectrum disorder and Poirier-Bienvenu neurodevelopmental syndrome, in accordance with the available medical evidence. The rule also maintains the possibility of updating the list by ministerial order, which allows it to be adapted to the evolution of clinical knowledge without the need for a new royal decree. Alongside the repeal of Royal Decree 1148/2011, the ministerial order that developed the previous list is expressly repealed, its content being integrated and updated in the new text.

Personal scope and management

The benefit remains outside the scope of civil servants, who are governed by article 49.e) of the consolidated text of the Basic Statute of Public Employees and by civil service rules. The royal decree also regulates with greater precision the concurrence of beneficiaries and the alternative or simultaneous form of receipt, especially in cases of shared cohabitation, and details the causes of suspension - temporary incapacity, suspension for childbirth, risk during pregnancy or breastfeeding - and of extinction, including the performance of work other than that taken into account for the working time reduction.

The rule, issued under the exclusive state competence of article 149.1.17 of the Constitution, has received reports from the Ministry of Health, the National Disability Council and the autonomous communities, and has gone through public consultation and hearings with trade unions, business associations and the Association of Work Accident Mutual Insurance Companies. For employment and Social Security law firms, the text requires a review of the criteria applied until now in applying for and defending the benefit, starting with the new casuistry of situations equivalent to admission and the calendar of binding reports that will condition long extensions. Those advising families in the application process will find useful context on recent protective action in the guide to benefits for self-employed mothers and in our coverage of the aid under Royal Decree-Law 32/2026, as well as in the judgment on paid leave for medical appointments, an example of the protective turn of recent employment case law.

Sources

• Royal Decree 957/2026, of 4 November (BOE-A-2026-23176)
• El Español's coverage of the extension of working time reduction to care for children with serious illness