Child poverty on the rise amid buoyant German economy

from Functionpix

Article by Michael Petek

Die Welt

Child poverty in Germany is increasing in spite of a buoyant economy and falling unemployment. Since the introduction three years ago of the Hartz reforms of the social security system the number of boys and girls dependent on social security has doubled to over 2.5 million according to Thomas Krüger, the head of the children’s charity Kinderhilfswerk, at the presentation of a report on the state of the nation’s children. However, he added that labour market reforms were not the cause of child poverty - they had only made family poverty more visible.

The report reveals that 14 per cent of all children in Germany are poor. In 1965 only one child in 75 below the age of seven was dependent on welfare. Today the figure is one in six and is doubling every ten years.

Many foreign families are in a particularly precarious position. In North-Rhine-Westphalia one child in three is poor, and in the cities the proportion is 40 per cent. The situation is worst in Bielefeld, where half of all children of migrant background are welfare dependent. Those of Turkish and Yugoslavian background are hardest hit, and the second generation harder than the first.

The authors of the report take the view that poverty is increasingly generational. A large proportion of migrants’ children find themselves in a vicious circle of poverty leading to poor education and work opportunities. One third of them leave school with no qualifications, largely because of a poor command of German. Thomas Krüger demanded measures to help them, including targeted language lessons and health advice.

The Kinderhilfswerk also notes that an increasing number of middle-class children are threatened with poverty. Today average earners, including skilled workers, can no longer feed a family of four and has to rely on supplementary welfare. The report identifies the tax and social security system as the root of the problem. The social insurance contributions payable by families are excessive. Jürgen Borchert, one of the contributors to the report, accused politicians of systematically deceiving citizens.

Social benefits in Germany are high on international comparisons. However, only 1.9 per cent of German gross domestic product is spent on families, compared with a European Union average of 2.1 per cent. Borchert indicated that the Constitutional Court has ordered relief for families with regard to social security contributions, though for political reasons this has not been implemented.

The Kinderhilfswerk is demanding a national campaign to fight child poverty, including tax and benefit measures to help the disadvantaged and state help for early-years education. It is demanding not only major improvements in quantity, but also in quality, as class sizes in kindergartens are too large and the teachers insufficiently qualified.

The Socialist Party of Germany intends to set up a commission on child poverty in the next few weeks to be headed by Wolfgang Jüttner, the candidate for the premiership of Lower Saxony in the elections due next year.