Good news, poverty has decreased (800,000 fewer people at risk and 600,000 fewer in severe poverty) in 2022. The bad news is that Spain has a historical structural problem and continues to be at the top of Europe: 12.3 million people at risk of poverty and social exclusion, 26% of the population; 4 million, in severe poverty. And this, despite the fact that employment figures have not stopped growing in recent years and the educational level (the considered social elevator) is the highest in history. In absolute terms, 1.4 million poor people have higher education, a figure that has doubled since 2008 (674,000 people).
This is indicated by the European Network to Fight Poverty and Social Exclusion in the Spanish State (EAPN-ES) in its XIII Report ‘The State of Poverty in Spain. Monitoring of the indicators of the EU Agenda 2030. 2015-2022’, presented this morning in the Congress of Deputies.
But why, despite economic growth, more employment and more institutional measures, is it not possible to reduce these embarrassing figures? According to Carlos Susías, president of EAPN Spain and EAPN Europe, due to the high price of housing (sale and rental) in Spain, due to the employment gap between men and women and the lack of aid for families with children. These factors “are key to the generation of poverty,” the report states.
In the specific case of housing, in 2022, four out of every five people with high spending on housing were poor (79.1%). As noted in the study, people in poverty have less access to property and, therefore, rent more. At the same time, renting, in addition to generating insecurity, is much more expensive than a mortgage and consumes a significant part of the available resources.
The expenditure dedicated to housing among the poor population is equivalent to 39.1% of household income, an effort more than three times greater than that made by non-poor people (12.5%).
On the other hand, the report confirms that gender inequality is a problem that requires specific approaches, given the temporary maintenance of worse indicators of poverty and social exclusion among women. According to this work, 27.2% of women and 24.8% of men were at risk of poverty and exclusion in 2022.
Furthermore, recovery policies do not reach both sexes equally: since 2015, social policies have resulted in half a million fewer poor men, while only 61,000 women have escaped poverty in the same period.
Associated with the above, one of the most worrying conclusions of the research is that relating to families with dependent minors, which register higher figures for all indicators of poverty and exclusion.
This situation of vulnerability translates into high numbers of child poverty: almost 2.6 million children and adolescents are at risk of poverty and social exclusion, a third of the total (32.2%). Single-parent families bear the brunt: 49.2% are at risk of poverty or social exclusion. Almost all of these households are made up of a woman with dependent minors.
It is also proven that employment and education continue to be essential due to their preventive potential, although they are losing strength as protective factors against poverty. Regarding the first, the report points out that having a job is not synonymous with the end of hardship: one in three poor people (32.9%) has a paid job. And it is that “employment without adequate conditions does not guarantee sufficient income to escape poverty,”
And regarding education, according to the report, 42.9% of the population at risk of poverty and social exclusion has completed intermediate or higher education, while one in ten people with higher education is at risk of poverty.
The number of people living in severe poverty has also been reduced by about 600,000. However, these figures are still extraordinarily high: 4.2 million people survive on incomes of less than 560 euros per month per unit of consumption.
A similar trend can be seen in the inequality data, which has decreased to 2008 levels: the average income per person registers the largest increase since that year and reaches €13,008 (€738 more than in 2021).
However, despite the general improvement, the deterioration of some indicators shows the impact of the latest crises on the most vulnerable households, associated with the price of housing, food and energy. In 2022, almost half of the Spanish population had difficulty making ends meet (47.8%); a third could not afford at least one week of vacation time per year (33.5%); and 17.1% were unable to keep their home at an adequate temperature (14.3% in 2021 and 10.9% in 2020).
