In its latest Poverty Watch Report EAPN Czechia maps poverty in the country and zooms in on the situation of people experiencing poverty or social exclusion.
Poverty has a profound impact on the life of the individual and the community. The social deprivation caused by living in poverty has an impact on an individual’s physical and mental health and on their wider life chances – there is a clear link to reduced employment opportunities, access to healthcare and decent housing (there are approximately 154,000 people in housing need today, 40% of whom are children).
In the case of the Czech Republic, the burden of foreclosure is significant. Although the number of people in foreclosure is gradually declining (only a few years ago around one million people were in foreclosure), approximately 660,000 thousand people remain affected by foreclosure, and in some poorer regions foreclosures reach up to 20%. About 400,000 people are in intractable multiple foreclosures.
In addition to people in foreclosure, there is also the phenomenon of the ‘working poor’, where people may have regular employment but their income – although formally above the official poverty line – does not allow them to save and the need for sudden expenses or the threat of longer-term illness is a significant stressor and a real problem for them (it is estimated that around 20% of households cannot afford a sudden expense of around 10 000 CZK).
