Action Day on the new Minimum Income Scheme
One year after the introduction of the new Minimum Income scheme in Austria, EAPN Austria organised a Day of Action to raise attention regarding the shortcomings of the new scheme. Public actions took place across the whole country, to protest against the inadequate amount of 750 Euros – which lies about 25% below the Austrian poverty line -, the lack of information and the bureaucratic barriers people in need of minimum income have to face. Activists in Vienna built a cardboard brick wall to symbolize the existing barriers and shortcomings of the new system.
EAPN Austria: New regional network in Vienna
A new regional anti-poverty network went public at the beginning of October 2011 in Vienna. The “Wiener Armutsnetzwerk” (Viennese Poverty Network) includes 40 members representing a wide variety of social organisations, service providers and self organisations of activists experiencing poverty and social exclusion who are active at city level. The aim of the network is to bring greater visibility to poverty and social exclusion in Vienna and to come up and go public with joint proposals on how to more effectively fight poverty and social exclusion in the city.
Website (German only): http://www.wienerarmutsnetzwerk.at/