EAPN Spain: Retouching statistical data relative poverty – 27.3% of Spain’s population lives at risk of poverty and social exclusion

28/05/2014 – Yesterday new data from INE Survey of Quality of Life ( CVD) were published. 2013 final data , with the headline “In the last year, the population at risk of poverty has fallen to 20.4 % compared to 20.8 % last year.” This holder contains two distortions. The first is the so-called statistical effect: poverty is called “relative ” because it is related to the level of the average household income. And in Spain , the average household income has done nothing but fall since 2008 , from 30,045 euros then to the 27,747 euros now. It decreased in 3.5 % only in the last year. That means the poverty line has moved down has well. That actually means that the less we earn, the poorer we are, … the lower the percentage of ” relative poverty”. But therefore, those on fixed income, such as pensioners and retirees, with households ‘theoretically” individual, have gone over that threshold, even if only of a few euros. With this calculation , in 2009 , 23.8 % of older people were in relative poverty and only only 12.7 % today ! Likewise, according to that calculation,child poverty has dropped since 2009,from 28.9% of those under 16 years, to 26.7 % now.

2014-Serbia-floods-disaster-floods-in-serbia-2

EAPN Serbia: Urgent call for help

20/05/2014 – Dear colleagues, in past weeks Serbia has suffered from the worst floods in the last 120 years. Entire cities are destroyed and thousands of mainly socially endangered households are suffering from the consequences. In order to ensure the system of collecting humanitarian aid/financial donations, the Government of the Republic of Serbia established the mechanisms of collecting funds via Pay Pal system. All members of Antipoverty Network Serbia are involved in disseminatiing the information, collecting donations, providing voluntary support to the endangered persons. #Serbiafloods

The Poverty Alliance (EAPN Scotland): New edition of Poverty in Scotland

08/03/2014 – The Child Poverty Action Group in association with the Poverty Alliance (EAPN in Scotland), the Open University and Glasgow Caledonian University have published a new edition of Poverty in Scotland series of books. The latest edition focuses on the key social justice and anti-poverty issues facing Scotland as it decides its constitutional future on 18 September 2014. As well as looking at the Scottish situation, the collection contains articles look at the experience of tackling poverty in Germany, Belgium, the Basque Country, Catalonia and others.

Belgian Anti-poverty networks react to national authorities’ contradictions on poverty

21/03/2014 – The Belgian Anti-Poverty Network (BAPN) and the Flemish Anti-Poverty Network (Netwerk tegen Armoede) reacted to the declarations of Maggie De Block, Belgian Secretary of State for Social Inclusion and the Fight against Poverty, who reacted to the increase in poverty in Belgium (1/5 children in Belgium grows up in poverty, 1/3 in the Brussels Region) by the National Plan for the Fight against Child Poverty. One of the objectives of this Plan is to be readable and accessible for children themselves.However, BAPN and its Flemish regional network point out numerous counterproductive measures taken by the current federal government, clashing with their ‘well-intentioned’ objectives described in the National Plan for the Fight against Child Poverty, as these measures clearly contribute to aggravate poverty:

BAPN is campaigning with three manifestos for the federal (national) and European elections

On 25 May, Belgium will vote at European level but also at Belgian level (for the federal and regional Parliaments). Belgium and Europe need political decision makers who get formally committed for a more social Belgium and Europe, to stop impoverishing policies and take concrete and efficient actions to eradicate poverty in Belgium and Europe. The Belgian Anti-Poverty Network (BAPN) is campaigning with three manifestos for the federal (national) and European elections: