ABSTRACT
Recent events - especially the economic crisis- have revealed the need to maintain the welfare
state, especially in developed countries (the most attacked by the crisis) which are also hit the
hardest by the recession and job losses. On the one hand, the increase in demand for social
services joins the decreased capacity to collect taxes as a result of the fall in economic
activity and declining social contributions because of the rising unemployment. On the other,
economic difficulties to prop up the welfare of citizens have caused the most unrest and
political debate about whether social spending is precisely that what must suffer cuts to
balance the public accounts. The answer of each country to this question will depend on its
ability to meet new challenges without compromising the future of younger generations. The
objective of this paper is to discuss the Spanish model of welfare, taking into special
consideration the demographic effects of an aging population and the reversal of migration
flows in order to discern which direction and what concrete measures can answer the
previous question. This has been a response that in the Spanish case, has highlighted the need
to review the excessive benevolence in granting a benefits system and the existing pockets of
fraud in the tax system.
Keywords: Economic Crisis, Social benefits, Welfare State