According to a newspaper report, child poverty in Germany has reached an all-time high. In 2021, the at-risk-of-poverty rate among children was 20.8 percent, according to the “Augsburger Allgemeine” on Monday from a response from the Federal Ministry of Labor to a request from the Left Group.
This is therefore the highest value that has been measured in evaluations of the so-called microcensus since 2015. According to the report, the poverty risk rate for children and young people was 19.7 percent at the time, and will be 20.4 percent in 2020.
Left parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch warned in view of the development of an imminent further deterioration of the situation for millions of children in Germany. “With inflation and skyrocketing energy prices, there is a risk of another massive increase in child poverty,” he told the newspaper. “We now need a protective shield for families in Germany.”
The government coalition Ampel must “add a poverty-proof basic child security” to the third relief package, he demanded. The planned increase in child benefit by 18 euros is clearly not enough.
Children are considered to be at risk of poverty if they live in households with less than 60 percent of the median income of the entire population.
