Germany’s growing pool of child poverty

They may have mobile phones and DVD players and may not ‘look poor,’ but millions of children in Germany are trapped in a worsening nightmare of poverty. In fact they eat at soup kitchens, most of what they have is a charity hand out and most are looked after by single mums who are unable to find work. As many as one in six children across the country live in "relative poverty", which means they live in families which have a monthly income of 60% or less of the national average. The higher birth rate in lower income families and, some say, controversial welfare reforms pushed through by the previous government are both among the many and complex causes of the problem.

The financial crisis, surprisingly isn’t what sank these children into poverty, but with Germany's economy expected to shrink by up to 6% this year, there is concern that the recession is now make matter worse for these children. "I think we will have an increase in child poverty around 2-3% this year," Professor Hans Bertram, one of Germany's leading researchers into child poverty, told the BBC in a report out today. "Of course, if people are out of work they have a lot of problems to run a family," he said. Child poverty is still rife in even the world’s most developed countries, and has been steadily rising since the mid 1990s, according to a 2005 paper by the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef). The effects of child poverty, said experts from the aid organisation, include learning difficulties, lower levels of education and higher chances of unemployment – which works to keep the poverty cycle going.

"Once I've paid for rent and for electricity," says Andrea Thiel explains, "I only have about 200 euros [£172] left a month." Andrea Theil, mother to twins Jasmin and her twin Florian 12, has no partner, no job, and receives a welfare cheque, which barely covers the bills. "I've got to buy all our food with that, plus all the things the kids need for school,” she told the BBC. “We usually run out of money before the month's over." "I don't have any job prospects at my age, I'm nearly 49," says Ms Thiel. "Most employers don't want to hire people as old as me."

The German Society for the Protection of Children warns of a "massive" increase in child poverty, when the full effects of the recession kick in. But German children aren’t the only ones facing increasing hardship. In the UK, ministers have admitted it will now be "very difficult" to meet their target of halving child poverty by 2010. And in the US, three million more children are expected to slip below the poverty line.

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children