2.5 million Poles live in extreme poverty, and more than 17 million face social isolation, and the number of people who find themselves homeless is growing every month. But what especially frightens the authors of the report "Poverty Watch 2024", prepared by the Polish Committee for Combating Poverty (EAPN Polska), is the 50% increase in the number of children who have nowhere to live. This is reported by Gazeta.
Analysts are sure that the last time Poland was in such a bad situation was in 2015.
The "economic tsunami" has led to a deepening of poverty in Poland," the authors claim.
This report is published every year and describes the extent of poverty in European countries. It is based primarily on official statistics, therefore it is considered a reliable indicator of poverty and wealth of the population of the united Europe.
"The impoverishment of society occurs, in particular, due to the deterioration of the economic situation of the whole country. Economic stagnation with small GDP growth (+0.2%) combined with high inflation last year (11.4%) are destroying the savings and real incomes of Poles. At the same time, social benefits are not indexed, which means that other families experiencing financial difficulties cannot benefit from assistance, as they do not belong to the poor," analysts confirm.
"The situation is aggravated by the lack of effective mechanisms for indexing benefits and the inconsistency of the social assistance system," the EAPN Polska report says.
Extreme poverty in Poland already affects 2.5 million people. This means that 6.6% of the country's population is deprived of the basic necessities of life. The last time such a level of extreme poverty was recorded was in 2015. This percentage is even higher among households with two children — as much as 9.4%.