Always remain polite, even in poverty
Photo: DPA/Friso Gentsch
»People’s thoughts revolve only around money. Everything you plan is offset against money. It’s a psychological burden,” says Helga Röller, describing the problems of people on low incomes, whom she supports as best she can on a voluntary basis. Röller is poor himself and is committed to helping people who have experienced poverty. From a young age she has been a person who addresses things instead of avoiding them, she says. This distinguishes them from many unemployed people and poor pensioners who hide their poverty because they are ashamed of it. In this sense, one speaks of hidden poverty, which would have to be added to the already striking official poverty statistics.
Röller was invited to the podium of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) on Wednesday to report on her and other poor people’s experiences. The occasion was the presentation of a current study by the DIW for Diakonie Germany, which determined the actual “burden on low-income households due to rising inflation”. Accordingly, Marcel Fratzscher, President of DIW Berlin, and Ulrich Lilie, President of Diakonie Germany, were also represented on the podium. Between the economist Fratzscher, who himself earns very well, and the former pastor Lilie, who is also not short of money, Röller was intended to play the role of the only person affected on the podium.
The study itself emphasizes that the federal government’s relief packages to date have offset the enormous price pressure, but are far from sufficient. Low-income households suffered disproportionately from the rapid inflation, which in many cases led to crises that threatened their existence. In concrete terms, the high inflation burdens the ten percent of households with the lowest net income far more than the richest ten percent. “With inflation forecast by the Bundesbank at an average annual rate of 7.1 percent, poor households will experience an additional burden of 5.3 percent in terms of their net income in 2022,” the paper says.
With increasing income, the relative additional burden tends to decrease. For rich households it is only 1.1 percent of income. “The reasons for this are that the prices for basic necessities in particular have risen sharply, which account for a significantly larger proportion of their consumption in the lower income households than in the highest-income households,” according to the study authors. This is also confirmed by Helga Röller on site: “The shortage is big,” she makes clear. And adds: “I now do without many things that I used to take for granted.” It is striking that she puts it as if it were her conscious decision to do without a lot.
Diakonie President Lilie honored this on the podium. “We still have a relative social balance in Germany,” he says. But then to warn of an “imminent social explosion”. But even then he doesn’t turn off the smile that he wears all the time on his face. Oddly enough, DIW President Fratzscher also smiles when he states: “With the previous relief packages, too much has been distributed according to the watering can principle.” The only one on the podium who didn’t laugh is Helga Röller. She looks around seriously and nervously.
The specific proposal of the study for more effective help, especially for the poorest households, is a monthly payment of 100 euros for six months. “In contrast to the federal government’s relief packages, this would have a targeted effect,” the paper says.
Meanwhile, the social organizations SoVD and VdK are suing for a greater increase in the rates for Hartz IV and basic security in old age. The two associations announced on Thursday that they would take model disputes to the Federal Constitutional Court. With the very small increase in rates this year, the government “violated its constitutional mandate to ensure the minimum subsistence level in a timely manner,” it said in a joint statement. At the beginning of the year, the rates were increased by three euros – for children by two euros.