By IRNA
Berlin : More than 2.6 million poor children are living in Germany as a result of the government’s tough unemployment and social welfare cuts, the head of the German DKSB child advocacy group, Heinz Hilgers announced in Berlin on Monday.
Speaking at a news conference, Hilgers called the latest record- breaking number of poor children a “scandal”.
He accused the center-rightist government of Chancellor Angela Merkel of ignoring the plight of poor children.
“The federal (German) government has shown in the recent past that it is not very much interested in the issue of children’s poverty. No government likes to deal with poverty,” Hilgers added.
He urged the government to substantially raise the individual child support money for poor children in addition to launching nationwide all-day care centers and reforming social welfare laws.
According to Hilgers, the unreported number of poor children in Germany was actually five million since the 2.6 million figure included only children of welfare recipients.
Earlier this month, the Nuremberg-based Federal Labor Agency (BA) said the number of children whose families receive social welfare payments, had reached a new record level in Germany.
According to the latest BA statistics released for the month of March, some 1.926 million children up the age of 15 were given social welfare money in March up 44,000 from March 2006.
Based on recent official figures, every seventh child in Germany lives in a poor household, meaning that the family is earning less than 50 percent of an average net income.
Experts have cited the country’s high unemployment rate, deep social welfare cuts and the breakdown of family values as the main reasons for the dramatic increase in the number of poor children.
Based on the first comprehensive study on the problem of poor German children which was published by Berlin’s Free University last year, there is no hope for a short-term solution to the problem.
In fact, the survey predicts a further alarming rise in child poverty in Germany over the coming years, as the government won’t be able to pay the growing number of social welfare recipients.
The study also estimates that in five years, almost every second child in the German capital Berlin will be on social welfare.
There will also be a major nationwide increase in youth crimes such as dealing with narcotics and theft.