EAPN - European Anti-Poverty Network

In a recent study paper issued by the European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research in Vienna “Poverty Risks for Older People” Asghar Zaidi shows how considerably EU countries differ in terms of poverty risks among older people and provides evidence against the broadly shared opinion that older people in new Member States face low poverty risk levels.

 

The author pledges in favour of the “material deprivation rate”, a method to measure the capacity to afford goods and services considered as necessary by most people to have an adequate living standard. Such indicator is a reliable complementary alternative to the commonly used “at-risk-of-poverty rate” which considers as poor people those living with a disposable income below 60% of the national median income.

At the launch of the 2010 European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion, Commission’s President Barroso and Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero committed openly to combat the persisting poverty among people aged 65 and over. AGE welcomed these important promises, but regrets the rather disappointing Commission first overview of responses to public consultation on the policy guidelines for Europe 2020 strategy. AGE calls on the Commission to take account of the major conclusion from social NGOs on the “weak, if not absent” social dimension of the strategy proposal, and to eventually ensure that the Europe 2020 strategy is underpinned by a strong social pillar, in order to guarantee that EU citizens concerns, including older people are adequately reflected in the discussion and decisions…

Read more at: http://www.age-platform.org/EN/spip.php?article895 and http://www.age-platform.org/EN/spip.php?article883.