Assistance
In order to reduce poverty in the Netherlands, “supportive legislation and policies” are needed such as increasing the guaranteed minimum wage or excluding vulnerable groups from benefit cuts, as well as “simplifying and speeding up the granting of aid”. Urgent measures are also needed to address debt problems and the ensuing speculation. This is what emerges from the report “Poverty in the Netherlands 2016” presented today in Utrecht, which was compiled by Knooppunt Kerken en Armoede, a platform connecting Christian institutions dealing with poverty. At the local level, there is a need to improve services by making them more accessible and customised; to free up resources for “emergency funds”; to define local policies aimed at combating poverty and to assess the impact on poverty of any policies adopted, whatever the field. The Churches, on their part, should ensure: more training to those who are willing to help, so that their help may be ever more effective and decisive; more cooperation “in monitoring poverty and anti-poverty policies” as well as in the dialogue with local institutions; more attention with regard to healthcare while also “considering vacation opportunities for those in situations of poverty”.
