Lower income groups and single parents in particular are at risk
The risk of impoverishment in Germany is growing. Most of all, it affects people who already have low incomes. In the lower income groups, the impoverishment rate rose from 1984 to 2007 from 15 to XNUMX percent. In the middle and upper classes, the rate hardly changed during the period under review. This is what the social scientists Martin Ehlert and Jan Paul Heisig show in an analysis for the quarterly journal of the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB).
Separation, divorce, children
"The poverty risk threshold is around 900 euros per person - if a household has a net income below this amount, we count it as impoverished," explains Ehlert in a press release. Low income is between 900 and 1.200 euros. Income between 1.200 and 2.200 euros is calculated as middle income. These income limits relate to single households. Children and partners are added with 0,3 and 0,5, respectively.
"Classic reasons for income poverty are unemployment, separation, divorce, but rarely also the birth of a child," says Ehlert. Risk groups are low-educated and single parents. In the low-wage sector, wages have even fallen in recent years. "It has become a lot more uncomfortable in this area," says Ehlert.
Single parents particularly at risk
Single parents - regardless of their level of education - have a much harder time asserting themselves on the job market. Overall, academics are less at risk of financial decline than less educated people. "The problem of poverty does not lie with people with a higher level of education, but with people with a secondary school leaving certificate or less," says the social scientist.
In order to tackle the misery, the education system in Germany should catch young people earlier so that they cannot become impoverished in the first place, according to the researchers. In addition, a nationwide expansion of childcare would help single parents to reintegrate into working life. The poverty of single parents could be improved by improving the compatibility between work and family.
(ck)
.