2023-05-07 12:21:14
Caritas President Landau presents a four-point plan before the inflation summit on Monday: tackle social welfare reform, increase minimum pensions, reform unemployment benefits, education as the key to fighting poverty
Vienna (KAP) – In view of the ongoing inflation, Caritas is demanding a significant increase in minimum pensions. “It is depressing that more and more minimum pensioners have to queue at Caritas for food packages, for very basic help. There must be changes here! One-off payments are not enough. A substantial increase in minimum pensions is the order of the day,” emphasized Caritas President Michael Landau to Kathpress in the run-up to the inflation summit scheduled for Monday, to which Social Affairs Minister Johannes Rauch, Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler and Agriculture Minister Norbert Totschnig have invited. The one-off payments would have meant only a brief sigh of relief for those affected by poverty. Comprehensive reforms are now needed in the social system, Landau appealed.
Specifically, the Caritas boss named a four-point plan that is essential for sustainable poverty reduction: Social assistance must be reformed, minimum pensions should be increased, unemployment benefits reformed and education taken seriously as the key to poverty reduction. A reform of social assistance requires “minimum standards instead of optional provisions, covering real housing costs, uniform child rates and a ban on counting other social benefits,” Landau explained. “Unacceptable” is also the fact that more and more minimum pensioners now have to queue in front of soup kitchens following a lifelong working life. “That is unacceptable. Minimum pensions need to be significantly raised to the poverty risk threshold.”
Unemployment benefits must also be raised to a “poverty-proof level” – “unemployment benefits have not even been adjusted for inflation so far,” said Landau. “And then I think it’s important that every child is taken along on the educational journey so that no gift or talent is lost. Fair access to education is essential to combating and preventing poverty. That’s also in Austria’s interest.”
After the rescue of the banks and the billions in aid for the economy in the Corona pandemic, “the people in Austria should now have top priority and the highest urgency in view of the inflation. We must not accept the need that is also happening in Austria as before. The welfare state is effective. Without it, many more people would be poor. Organizations like Caritas are making their contribution. But it is high time that the federal government made our social network a safe lifeline that reliably protects people from poverty.” , according to Landau.
Most recently, following a SORA study commissioned by 400 people from Vienna and Lower Austria, Caritas sounded the alarm:
According to this, almost 70 percent of those seeking help would never have thought that they would ever be dependent on support from Caritas. 80 percent do not know how to make ends meet without the help of aid organizations. And more than half of those surveyed are convinced that they need help in the long term. 94 percent of those surveyed cannot afford regular leisure activities. 76 percent have to do without wholesome meals. 73 percent cannot keep their homes warm, 70 percent cannot replace worn out clothing.
“Far too many people in Austria face the question every day:
Heat or eat? They are afraid of the next bill for electricity, gas or rent.” As a result, the inquiries in the Caritas social centers on the topics of housing and energy have doubled across Austria, according to Landau. (Info: www.caritas.at)
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