The Catalan Social Action Entities (ECAS) federation has warned this week that neither GDP growth nor the improvement in employment has resulted in a notable reduction in poverty and the risk of social exclusion which, according to the rate parameters Arope will reach 24.4% of the population in Catalonia in 2023 compared to 24.7% the previous year. ECAS highlights in its annual report that in the last 15 years a quarter of the inhabitants remain entrenched in precariousness. Today, the balance of Red Cross activity in 2023 has been added to these data, when it served 399,966 citizens in Catalonia, of which 40%, 160,139, were in a situation of “extreme vulnerability”; That is, they had turned to said entity to “cover basic needs for food, hygiene, school supplies or to pay for supplies.”
These 160,139 people are the highest number in the last five years and represent 33% more than before the pandemic, in 2019. “Despite the fact that the average income has risen a little and that the intensity of work has improved, there is a factor that goes very against, the increase in prices, which means that many people, despite having a full-time job, do not make ends meet,” considers Anna Sabaté, coordinator of Creu Roja in Catalonia. This organization has detected that the number of men and women treated with health problems has doubled. Financial aid to cover health expenses, such as the co-payment of medication, the purchase of glasses or hearing aids, has increased by 62%.
Creu Roja has an annual budget of 145.4 million euros, the majority of which (107.6 million) is allocated to social inclusion. More than 60% of the funds come from administrations.
The ECAS research Chronification of poverty and growth of precariousness covers the last ten years, coinciding with the tenth anniversary of the preparation of these reports. One of the issues it addresses is that having a job “does not guarantee avoiding economic vulnerability” since, “in 2023, 10% of employed people were also at risk of exclusion.” The mismatch between income and the cost of living, especially housing, determines the permanent impoverishment of the most fragile population groups. “The rise in prices, especially since 2020, without a correlation in the evolution of salaries, entails a significant loss of purchasing power,” highlights ECAS.
The report dedicates a section to analyzing the evolution of the Arope rate, an indicator proposed by the European Union that consists of three components to quantify poverty, work intensity and severe material deprivation. This last parameter has gone from 3.1% to 8.9% between 2009 and 2023. 36% of people cannot meet unforeseen expenses and almost 30% do not have the resources to go on vacation for one week a year. In the last decade, the percentage of citizens who pay their household bills late has risen from 6% to 9.6%. ECAS regrets that social policies have failed to combat inequalities.
