How are poverty levels in your country?

15 comments

1. 8.7% percent of the population of Switzerland are poor (of these about half are poor despite having a job, so called “working poor”).

   Poor being defined as less than 2279 CHF/month (2462 USD, 2182 Euro) of net-income for a single adult, or less than 3976 CHF/month (4295 USD, 3807 Euro) net income for a family (Two adults, two children). That to me seems to be a reasonable measure, living with less than 2300 CHF/month certainly isn’t easy. For comparison: most universities recommend a budget of somewhere between 1800 and 2000 CHF/month for students, this assumes shared flats, no car, cheaper public transportat, etc.

   There are numerous safety nets and financial support services, how easy they are to access and how good they actually provide for you is a topic of constant political debate. Thankfully I have no personal experience and thus cannot really give any insight.

2. ~20% of the population is in the risk of poverty

   1.Not me, but in my area, the area I’ve spent a lot of time at, and among my friend group there are people in poverty.

   2.They get financial support for some time, but if they don’t find a job in a few months (i don’t know the exact number) they don’t get money anymore. The quality of life is quite bad, I’ve used outhouses many times before, but I couldn’t imagine only having that, but these people sometimes do. A good example is [Hős utca](https://www.google.com/search?q=h%C5%91s+utca&client=ms-android-samsung-ss&prmd=imvxn&sxsrf=AOaemvJqzAYNQGyJ4zff_a_mnrFOny4BFw:1638818615907&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjUz86L88_0AhUESuUKHfl-AEQQ_AUoAXoECAIQAQ&biw=412&bih=724&dpr=2.63) (‘Hero street’)

   3.The new tax system didn’t do a lot of good. It makes the rich richer and the poor poorer (big positive to our corrupt overlords lol). We used to have a system which worked in a way where the larger your income the larger the tax, but now we have a fixed percentage.

3. Luckily, the povertyline was abolished by the liberal government in 2015, so there is no poverty in Denmark…

   … That said, the national statistical institute uses a poverty indicator with three prongs: Low income, low purchasing-opportunities and self-identified financial insecurities. So while it isn’t as straightforwards as saying “all who make under 117.000 DKK/year are poor,” there is some data on the matter, indicating that around ~18% of Danes live in a “low income” group, and that ~8,7% of Danes live in a “relative poverty” group. The two groups may overlap. That said, it is important to note, university students are automatically excluded from these numbers. If they were included, the statistics would look quite different, as a good chunk, over 50%, of university students in Denmark, would be classified as poor… But that would reflect poorly on our education system, so it is omitted; yes, that is literally the reason.

   Poverty can take many faces in Denmark, from the utmost destitute, living on the streets, over people in the precariat and people on transfer-payments, to people who have stable jobs, who own their own homes, and so-on.

   Personally, I’d say, my younger childhood, was one of poverty, though we didn’t really feel it. We lived in public housing: a large row-house with a small yard, later on we moved to a house in a village with a large garden. But my mum was working—and still is working—one of the most unforgiving jobs in Denmark and back then, my stepdad was still a university student. We weren’t destitute in any way, at all, we lived comfortably, but we were still poor. My family is made up of proles, as far back as we can trace, so us being proles as well, well, is no surprise. But because of the victories of the labour movement—victories that successive liberal and social democratic governments have helped deteriorate—we were able to live comfortably, even if we were poorer than many of our peers.

   Are government programs easy to come by? Yes, and no. They are there, but they are a system of surveillance and of mistrust, and of constant coercion and harsh punishments, if people do not adhere to every minute detail. Like with most of our welfare system, which garners unjust appraisal abroad, it is there, and is better than nothing, but then no more.

4. According to [this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_percentage_of_population_living_in_poverty) 12% of people lived under national poverty line in 2018 and 0,1% of people live with less than $5,50 per day. According to our [statistical office](https://www.stat.si/StatWeb/Field/Index/10/39) 12,4% currently live under poverty line and 15% are at risk of social exclusion. In 2020 poverty line was 739€ per month for one person, 1108€ for a family with no kids and 1.551 for a family with two kids under 14. This poverty line has to be calculated every few years and minimum wage has to be adjusted to atleast 20% above it. The highest risk of poverty is among elderly women who live alone.

   Financial social assistance for those not working is 402,18€ per month for a single person. If they do volountary work they get more. Either 506,75€ or 607,29€. And then if you have kids you get more. If you get less than 591,20€ per month you can also ask for protection allowance (?).

   The bigget contributor is low pension of some, speciffically women who weren’t employed.

5. I know how it is to be poor. Its very scary. I’m not going to go into my personal details.

   In the UK the gap between the rich and poor is getting wider every year. Inequality breeds crime and discontent.

   You’ve got those in the middle who couldn’t care less because they aspire to being one of the elite and they’ve forgotten where they came from.

   A polarised society is a passport for trouble. Unfortunately we have a tory government that feeds off discontent and fosters a divide and rule philosophy. It plays on the incipient fears of those in the middle. Consequently they own these people.

   The UK is heading towards total meltdown. Sorry, I’ll rephrase that. The UK is sleep walking towards total meltdown

6. 19% of the total population, and 26% of children in Scotland are living in poverty.

   1) I’ve been lucky enough to have never experienced it myself but I could go for a walk and see some of the worst of it in 10-15 minutes.

   2) There are services, benefits, Universal Credit, foodbanks etc. but they’re not enough for a comfortable living I believe, and it’s very easy to lose them.

   3) A lack of opportunities. There’s limited decently paid, full time work out there for people without any skills/training/experience. Retraining at a later stage often isn’t an option for people, student loads aren’t enough to raise a family on, apprenticeships are usually very poorly paid (and very difficult to get as you get older). Expensive childcare is also a factor preventing some people finding work.

7. Apparently around 11% of the population are at risk of poverty.

   1. No, I was lucky enough to be born in a rich family.

   2. I have no idea tbh. I don’t know anyone who is poor but I know for sure there is financial support.

   3. I think what’s contributing to poverty is mostly the fact that there are not many job opportunities in some areas and some jobs are not very well paid. But tbh, I don’t really know. That’s just what I personally think.

8. Non existent. People aren’t poor-poor (I’ve lived half a year in SEA and seen proper poor a plenty!) here in Denmark, as everyone is entitled to get money from the state called kontanthjælp if in need, and if you receive no other income.

9. Around [30%](https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/-/edn-20201016-2) of Romanians are at risk of poverty according to Eurostat. Second place after Bulgaria, but only by a bit. I recently saw some figures from the national statistics bureau who mentioned something around 23%.

   1. No. Fortunately until now I did not. While I grew up in a mining region an almost all mines closed, my parents were fortunate enough to not lose their jobs and retire.
   2. Very poor. The amount of money given to them is low.
   3. Many factors contributed. Many of the large factories built by the commies were closed and sold to scrap. Many could not be salvaged, others were privatized to shady people and then closed. That is for the 90’s and this decade was awful and only in 2004 we had reached the level of 1990 in terms of GDP. Since the 2000’s we have a very neoliberal economic approach. We have a flat tax rate and many economists supported low wages in order to attract investors. While this lead to a good economic growth, the results for the average Joe is way less spectacular. Only a few cities experienced growth and because of the low wages we have a high percentage of people who are at risk of poverty while being employed. This economic policy also helped inequality to grow. By the GINI index, we are among the most unequal countries in the EU. Also, no govt policy was enacted or even debated for underdeveloped parts of the countries like many small cities and rural areas. In many rural areas, I do not think that I exaggerate when I say that the only change in the last 30 years is migration.

10. Wales hasn’t been doing well for a long time with poverty. The main cause of our woes was deindustrialisation, many towns especially in the South Wales Valleys were heavily reliant on industrial jobs (mostly coal mining) so when the coal mines were all shut in the 70s and 80s most people suddenly lost their livelihoods, and even to this day nothing has really replaced those jobs in the majority of towns.

    Geography also doesn’t help us, as it is difficult to build good and fast transport systems in mountainous areas with narrow, densely packed valleys (although the Swiss and Austrians seem to manage), this makes most of Wales not the most attractive place for businesses.

    Other factors like Universal Credit changes and austerity since 2010 have made the situation worse, but the source of the problems causing poverty in Wales pre date these factors by decades/ centuries

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12. According to Wikipedia about 12-14% of people living in Finland are considered poor.

    >Have you ever experienced poverty? What was your experience?

    Not really. As a student I had low income which only barely covered my rent but I received financial support from my parents.

    >What is the quality of life for those who are poor in your country? Are social services/financial support easily accessible?

    As a last resort for individuals whose income doesn’t cover their essential daily expenses there is basic social assistance provided by state. There is also different kinds of subsidised housing available but if you live in a large city – like Helsinki – queues for such housing are long and many are forced to live in market-rate rental apartments.

    >What do you think is contributing to poverty where you live?

    I live in Helsinki and I think that main reason here is expensive housing combined with working a part-time job or a job such as food delivery courier, Uber driver or similar. There’s also unemployment as well, but not as much as in smaller towns.

    In smaller towns and countryside number one reason is loss of jobs, I think. Paper industry is a significant industry in Finland but over the years many paper mills have closed resulting in people losing their jobs. Many paper mills have been in towns which have pretty much grown around the paper mill so the effects of a paper mill closing down are drastic.

13. “Finland’s poverty rate is 5.8 percent, based on a 50 percent threshold of the average income from the OECD’s most recent report.25 Jul 2018”

    I have never really experienced poverty in Finland although there has been times when I’ve not had much money. As I have a job, I pay around 10€ a month employment insurance, meaning if I lose my job, I will get 70% of my salary for 1 year. Also, now that I have a house, I have insurance that will give me the other 30%, so I’m safe for a whole year. If I don’t find a new job within that time, I will then go on to state benefits, which is around 520€ a month net. (At least it was 4 yrs ago).

    I have lived in poverty in England. Growing up, with a single parent, my mother worked full-time, but we were broke. There were times we couldn’t afford electricity. (That would never happen here). Also, in my late teens, I was in and out of work, claiming living and housing benefits. That was just boring more than anything, but luckily for me, I had a bunch of friends in the same situation, so we used to hang out at someone’s house, smoking weed and listening to music. Plus I had a hot girlfriend, so things were never that bad!

    In my early 20s, I lived in squats in London for a while and worked part-time until I went to university, where I had more stable finances.

    Living in poverty/being broke is stressful. You don’t know how long it will last or if it will get worse. You have days where you literally have no money at all, so should there be an emergency, you’re kind of screwed. It’s also really boring. Spending months on end doing nothing, limited socialising, eating cheap food, every day being the same, all gets a bit depressing. Your sense of identity changes and self-confidence gets knocked.

    High cost of rent/housing is a big contributing factor in Helsinki. Too many jobs with zero hours contracts. Also, if you’re living with someone, they get penalised as their income is counted as shared income. For example, when I was unemployed, I was living with my girlfriend who was working FT. However, this meant I wasn’t eligible for any housing benefit as she could pay the whole rent. We ended up having to move to a cheaper place in a less desirable area. She had less disposable income.

14. 3, A too good to be true welfare system in Norway is actually to a degree creating poverty. Through the years statistics has shown that about 1 million people here are on somekind of social welfare benefits. Several of them on that type of welfare which keeps them out of work life. The road to poverty is by being outside of the work life. The schisma here is that if the government get people out of the total work force of the country.. That’s also a way to keep unemployment statistics low. In media through years there are several cases on people who actually want to work but the system keeps them within social welfare and out of work. In the end also many people are fine with social welfare benefits and don’t want to work.. For some even they can be better off on benefits than in a job economically. Another contributor is also the family structures of immigrant famlies (which lives under the poverty line)… many of them with many kids, and wife staying home not speaking norwegian, not having a job… while the man works within low paid job.

15. According to 2018 data, anywhere from 4 to 32% depending on the region.

    1. No, I come from a lower middle class family

    2. They can afford roof and food, but might struggle with bills. The first sign is usually apartments with temperature below a comfortable level in winter. Social/financial support is extremely easy to access (assuming you qualify), sometimes even too easy (open to exploitation).

    3. Usually older people who worked all their lives off the books, and now receive an extremely limited pension. Then there’s people with drug/alcohol/gambling problems. As you move South, there’s also increasing issue with employment.