The child poverty in Germany has decreased in the past five years, despite the high level of asylum immigration. This applies at least if one uses as a measure of the respect of basic social security (“Hartz IV”). The number of German children who lived with their families of Hartz IV benefits, is even rapidly declining. The latest Numbers show the Federal employment Agency. Use it to draw a different picture as the one on Wednesday widespread publication of the Bertelsmann Foundation. Their presentation, according to the “remains” child poverty “for years at a consistently high level, although during this time there was a very good economic development and a number of family policy reforms”.
Dietrich Creutzburg
economic correspondent in Berlin.
F. A. Z.
The official data, a total of 1.87 million children were living in Germany at the end of 2019 under the age of 18 years, in households, the Hartz IV related. That was $ 35,000 less than at the end of 2014. Behind it there are two opposing trends: The number of affected German children fell by 371.000 or 23 percent, at least 1.27 million. At the same time, the number of affected children has doubled with a foreign passport on 655.000. Their share in the total number of children in the Hartz-IV-System has increased in the five years from 17 percent to 35 percent.
This is explained mainly by the escape of migration of 2015 and 2016, in consequence of now a number of former asylum seekers through the support. As a at the request of the F. A. Z. have created additional evaluation of the Federal employment Agency shows, were among the last 654.509 foreign children in the Hartz-IV-System alone 403.763 children from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and other important asylum countries of origin. Since the end of 2014 their number has risen by of 341 000, has increased six-fold so well. The number of Hartz IV is concerned, foreign children, whose families have been living in Germany, is however decreased.
shows The analysis of the Bertelsmann Foundation, criticized the development of children’s poverty is mainly due to the fact that families coming from civil war countries, after Germany and here protection have received. The publication of the Foundation, the classified of this on Wednesday as a “Factsheet” and by news agencies as a “study” was referred to, does not deal with these aspects, however.
However, the Bertelsmann publication defines an extended concept of Poverty: This is recorded for all the children that live in Hartz IV households; on the other, but also all of the children whose families have an income of less than 60 percent of the overall Income average. These are according to their calculation, together 2.8 million children, one fifth of all under 18-Year-olds in Germany. As the publication shows, including more than 460,000 children, their families of Hartz IV, the to achieve but, nevertheless, more than 60 percent of the overall Income average. The Foundation, as well as the SPD, Green, Left and social organisations participated in the publication on Wednesday on the occasion, to demand new and higher social benefits for children.
