Some 2.8 million children in Germany — or one in five — are growing up in poverty, a report from the Bertelsmann Foundation published Wednesday showed. The study found that there had been few improvements in recent years, and that the coronavirus crisis will likely make the situation worse. “For years, the fight against child poverty has been one of the greatest social challenges in Germany,” the report said.
The country’s persistently high rate of high child poverty shows that the area is a “significant, unfinished construction site” for Germany, the report said. The study considered several factors in its analysis of childhood poverty. In addition to looking at families that receive Germany’s Hartz IV welfare benefits, researchers also considered children from families whose income is less than 60% of the average of all households, considered to be at-risk of poverty.
Around two-thirds of children living in poverty in Germany experience it longterm, the report said. Concrete effects of poverty in Germany include not owning a car or having electronic devices in the house, and doing without vacations and activities like going to the movie theater. For example, 24% of children in households receiving basic income support have no access to a computer with internet, the report said.
Source: Deutsche Welle
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