Cáritas reveals in its social x-ray of the pandemic crisis that poverty and inequality indicators are worsening at the national level
Compared to the “great recession” between 2008 and 2013, the economic and social crisis caused by the pandemic between March 2020 and spring 2021 has been harsher in its scope, faster in destabilizing families and with a higher degree of inequality, according to the report ‘Evolution of social cohesion and consequences of Covid-19 in Spain’, presented by Cáritas. Some indicators of poverty and social exclusion – a concept that goes beyond material deprivation and extends to the impossibility of accessing decent employment and housing – doubled in just over a year.
The “population in a situation of severe material deprivation” has almost doubled in the Region: from just over 4% to almost 8%. In Spain, this figure goes from 4.7% to 7%; “serious job instability” affecting household breadwinners increased from 4.8% to 10.3%; “social exclusion” grows from 8.6% to 12.7% of the population, between 2018 and 2021. This is “two million more people affected by an accumulation of social problems”, according to the study.
THE AMOUNT
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31.4
percent of the regional population is at risk of poverty, a rate that has increased by almost 10% between 2018 and 2021. In addition, 12.7% turned to a family member or friend in 2020 to purchase basic goods or money.
In the case of the Region, these data worsen: 25.4% of the population is in a situation of social exclusion and 13.2% in severe social exclusion. This is the fourth worst figure at the national level, behind Catalonia, the Canary Islands and Andalusia. In Spain, relative poverty increases three points, to 24%, and severe poverty grows almost two, to 11.2%, compared to 2019 data.
Another piece of information in which the Region comes out badly is that of people who went to a family member or friend to request basic goods or money to get them: from 2019 to 2020 this percentage increased from 11.1% to 12.7%. There was also an increase in the population that went to an entity in search of this type of help, which went from 4.7% to 6.7%. In addition, the risk of poverty has grown from 21.9% to 31.4% in just three years, between 2018 and 2021.
“A significant part of the population is at risk or has been expelled from society,” says Natalia Peiro, general secretary of Cáritas Española and executive director of Foessa (Promotion of Social Studies). «Last year, 11 million people entered a space of social exclusion, which represents 2.5 million new people compared to 2018. And it pains us to confirm that those who have been left out of society have a hard time starting over ».
More than in the 2008 recession
According to their data, some 6 million are severely excluded, a third more than three years ago. “In addition, there is a deepening of the inequality gap,” says Peiro. “Poverty has grown more in a year of pandemic than during the entire 2008 crisis,” confirms Raúl Flores, technical secretary of Foessa. “The poorest have lost more income, and the richest have not lost income. Inequality has increased by 25%. The most vulnerable have suffered the most from layoffs.
The research, based on a survey carried out in 7,000 homes, with a direct response from 18,000 people, makes an X-ray of this great crisis, “a complete look,” says Peiro. Some data to which is added the experience with the 1.4 million beneficiaries of Caritas in 2020, about 360,000 more than in the previous period.
Other data that proves the density of the crisis: 20.6% live in unhealthy homes or in overcrowded conditions; conflicts in social and family relationships went from 5.1% to 8.3%, and the digital blackout affects 35% of the population due to lack of connection or equipment, which increases their vulnerability by losing employment and education opportunities . The households that have all their members unemployed reached 2 million, 900,000 more. In addition, the gender gap has increased, since social exclusion has more than doubled in households whose main breadwinner is a woman.
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