IW study on child poverty
Financial insecurity hinders educational advancement
8/28/2023 8:58 am
In the debate about basic child security, Finance Minister Lindner regularly emphasizes that more money does not necessarily help. An analysis by the German Economic Institute now shows the extent to which poverty can affect the academic success of children and young people.
According to a media report, the German Economic Institute (IW) considers the financial problems of families to be the biggest hurdle on the way to school success in the debate about child protection. “A high level of financial resources facilitates both targeted, situational support, for example in the form of private tuition, and reliable long-term support,” says an as yet unpublished IW study commissioned by the New Social Market Economy initiative, which supports the digital media company Table.Media Template.
According to the report, the central problem for most children and young people with regard to their chances in education and social advancement is financial insecurity. Accordingly, every fifth child is currently affected by poverty – and the trend is rising. In households of single parents, as many as 40 percent live in financially precarious circumstances. According to the study, the figure for migrants is 35 percent.
After months of dispute, the traffic light government had reached an agreement on basic child security on Monday night. According to government circles, Family Minister Lisa Paus and Finance Minister Christian Lindner agreed on the key points for the new family benefit at another top-level meeting with Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Sunday evening after hours of negotiations. Details are expected to be presented this morning.
A month-long argument
Paus and Lindner have been arguing for months about the amount of money for basic child security, which from 2025 should bundle essential family policy services and make them more accessible. With a view to children from poor and low-income families, the family minister felt that significantly higher amounts were necessary than the finance minister wanted to provide.
Lindner emphasized again on Sunday in the ZDF “summer interview” that he did not want a higher social transfer. The key to fighting child poverty is education, integration and language training, he said. The FDP leader reiterated that from his point of view “there is a connection between child poverty and immigration to Germany”.