Some 160,000 children are living in poor families or families threatened by poverty in the diocese of Münster alone. For many of these families the approaching school year means having to find the money for educational material (textbooks and the like). But to cover these expenses, points out Ulrich Thien of Caritas in Münster, the one-off state payments are no longer provided: Caritas asks that they be re-introduced. Thien criticises the fact that poor children are disadvantaged in various ways right from the start and this has later repercussions on their educational and professional opportunities. To alleviate the problem of the costs of school materials, fund-raising actions have been held in many German cities to help families in difficulty. “No political solutions are yet in sight”, deplores Thien, who denounces another incongruity: the children of parents unable to work, who continue to receive social benefits of the same amount as families in economic difficulty, still continue to benefit from the one-off payments. The lack of money also prevents children from poor families from gaining access to activities that are normal for other children, such as sports activities, or lessons in music, which are later career advantages and taken into consideration by prospective employers. For this reason Caritas asks the municipal authorities to introduce passes for disadvantaged families to enable their children to enjoy free or discounted access to sporting and cultural structures and services. “But so far only a few cities provide such facilities”, pointed out Ulrich Thien.
