Two times poorer

According to the 2011-2012 Social Report, presented on November 19 by Austrian Welfare Minister Rudolf Hundstorfer, the ascertained number of poor people in Austria has doubled since 2005. It’s a "worrying" and "dramatic" trend, said the president of Austrian Caritas Franz Küberl, especially as relates to salaries and wealth distribution, although "Austria’s welfare state has partly compensated the negative consequences of the economic crisis with an active job market policy". Austrian Caritas and the Armutskonferenz (Conference on Poverty), the Austrian network – of confessional and non confessional organizations – for combating poverty and social exclusion, commented on the Report, follow the highlights of their statements. The figures. According to the report, ascertained poverty in Austria has grown steadily by 4.6% in the period 2005 to 2010 involving as many as 511,000 Austrians (6.2% of the population). These are people whose income is 60% ​​lower than the Austrian average income, who are at risk of poverty and lack the financial means, for example, to “heat the house” to buy “nutritious food” or to make “regular payments". "Such situation occurs on a daily basis", Küberl said in a statement released November 20. In the light of this, he added, "the ascertained number of poor people is all the more tragic". The report also shows that long-term poverty has doubled compared to 2005, affecting 10.6% of the overall population. "The longer a person is poor, the lesser his/her personal resources and the more difficult it becomes to exit from this situation", Küberl remarked, pointing out that "long term poverty is scary, it leads people to self-isolation and it is also dangerous and expensive for the State". In support of this position, Caritas president underlined the increase in social expenses for health, labour policies and security. Conversely, the number of people threatened by poverty and social exclusion has decreased. In 2008 1.5 million people were at poverty risk, (18.6% of the overall population), in 2010 it involved 1.3 million (16.6%). Young people and children, more often women than men, are exposed to poverty risk. 37% of single parents is at poverty risk, as well as a third of women who live alone without a pension. The Report shows a slight improvements in housing conditions, which, for Küberl, doesn’t reflect the whole picture, as an increasing number of people live in inadequate housing conditions, he said. A growing gap. Although the welfare state has taken measures against the economic crisis, "the gap between the rich and the poor, between those with high salaries and those with low wages" is a reason for concern, said the President of Caritas. There must therefore be "a fair contribution resulting from capital gains to finance social spending". At the same time, Küberl said " it is necessary to reduce labor costs and foster equal wages" with transfers of funds to finance measures in social services. A “politics of labor and active housing" is in fact a "fundamental task" to ensure a minimum income. "Poverty", he said, “can only be fought with a multilevel approach", through investments in education, affordable housing and the development of social services". Social policies against the crisis. Also the Armutskonferenz, which over the past 15 years has enabled the networking of Caritas with other Catholic, evangelical and a-confessional organizations engaged in social assistance, in a document released November 20 highlighted the importance of "social policy instruments to curb the negative effects of the economic crisis". According to the Conference, the "social gap increase and the concentration of wealth is evident. People living on the brink of poverty have limited possibilities of growth. Their future depends on their social background". The increasing divide between the rich and the poor is to be seen in "extremely high concentration of wealth at the top. 5 percent of the population owns half of the whole assets, the remaining 50% only 4%. "We are also seeing a large increase in costs for housing, energy and power, a phenomenon that particularly affects the poor". "The Welfare State must therefore make up for social inequalities. Only through social policy tools is it possible to curb the consequences of the crisis. Without social services", the organization warns, "even average wages are put under pressure and risk a sharp decrease".