Unemployed in Germany have greatest risk of poverty in the EU

Author: Rebecca Staudenmaier

Posted on: DW.com | February 27^th, 2018

Despite its reputation as one of Europe’s wealthiest and economically-stable countries, Germany has the highest risk of poverty for the unemployed. According to the latest EU figures, the risk is as high as 70 percent.

Those who are unemployed in Germany face a much higher risk of falling into poverty than any other European Union member state, according to figures released by the European statistics office Eurostat on Monday. After analyzing data from 2016, Eurostat found that the risk of poverty for the unemployed in Germany is at 70.8 percent.

Lithuania was a distant second at 60.5 percent, followed by Latvia with a poverty risk of 55.8 percent.The countries with the lowest risk poverty for the unemployed — all under 40 percent — were France, Cyprus and Finland.Eurostat found that for 2016, the average risk of poverty for unemployed persons between the ages of 16 and 64 in the bloc was 48.7 percent. In 2006, the average risk was 41.5 percent.

German politicians distressed by figures

Left party leader Katja Kipping called the Eurostat figures a «resounding smack for the CDU, CSU and SPD.»German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister-party the Christian Social Union (CSU) have been in a coalition with the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) since 2013.

Kipping said the coalition government «has to answer for the catastrophic situation» but has «apparently no desire to change anything.»The CDU, CSU and SPD have agreed to form another coalition government, but the coalition deal is still pending approval from SPD party members.

Read at: http://www.dw.com/en/unemployed-in-germany-have-greatest-risk-of-poverty-in-the-eu/a-42752570