NGO warns of a possible "considerable" increase in child poverty in 2023 in Germany due to rising prices

BERLIN, Dec. 19 (DPA/EP) -

The German non-governmental organization Kinderschutzbund has warned on Monday that it expects a "considerable" growth in child poverty in Germany next year due to the increase in prices of basic products and energy due to the war in Ukraine.

The organization's president, Heinz Hilgers, has pointed out that child poverty has been growing in Germany for years and that it is now increasing due to the economic consequences of the war in Ukraine. "Inflation especially affects families who have little money. Child poverty will increase considerably next year," he said.

Thus, Hilgers has pointed out in statements to the newspapers 'Stuttgarter Zeitung' and 'Stuttgarter Nachrichten' that families with children could not get ahead with the income from the so-called citizen income, the new German unemployment benefit that was recently increased. In this sense, she has stressed that the increase comes too late and is engulfed by inflation.

In relation to low-income people, the president of the Kinderschutzbund explained that the increase in the minimum wage means that in difficult times the financial disaster for low-income people is not so terrible, as the German news agency has reported. APD.

Hilgers has also defended the need to increase the minimum wage to thirteen or fourteen euros per hour -currently it is twelve euros per hour- and has argued that "this would help fewer families remain in poverty". Likewise, she has asked for more immediate aid for children in the coming year.

Finally, the president of the NGO has outlined that politicians cannot "leave families in need to their own devices" and has stressed the need for the plans of the government coalition for a basic child benefit to be implement quickly.