Report on Poverty and Wealth: Children and young people mostly affected by poverty

[26. 2. 2013] Refering to the political debate last Thursday on the 4th Report on Poverty and Wealth at Bundestag, the AGF called on the German Federal Government to consider the question of poverty seriously. Especially the high risk of poverty among children shows disastrous effects – for the children themselves as well as for the society as a whole.

‘Poverty will not be reduced by some whitewashing and the removal of passages to which one disagrees’, comments the president of AGF, Dr. Klaus Zeh, the recent developments concerning the 4th Report on Poverty and Wealth.’But it makes clear that the measures undertaken to prevent poverty has not been successful in recent years. Especially, it is alarming that still mostly children and young people suffer from a high poverty risk, with considerable effects on their future possibilities.’

The poverty risk of children and young people from jobless households, from single parent families, from a migrant background and large families with more than three children is above average.Children and young people stroken by poverty have less chances to be successful at school and they suffer from health problems more often. For those children, it is much more difficult to be an active citizen in society. Instead, poverty will be passed on from one generation to the next – a spiral of poverty that has to be broken.

‘Poor children mostly live in poor families. Thus, political measures aiming to fight poverty have to take into account the families as a whole as well as the children and young people directly’, demands the president of AGF.

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