Hungary In Hungary, welfare checks protect children from poverty Child poverty is only slightly worse in Hungary than in the EU average, thanks to the relatively generous financial support – says study.

June 17, 2010

Comment: The article reports about a Europe-wide research on child poverty, which has categorized Member States in four groups based on the frequency and depth of child poverty. Apart from focusing on the income of parents, the study also looked at other issues, such as employment status, education, health, but also the existence of child care institutions. Not surprisingly Northern European countries but also France, Slovenia and Cyprus belong to the first group, where child poverty is rare and its depth is low. In these countries the employment rate of women is high, due to the existence of quality and widely available child care institutions. Hungary, together with Germany, UK and the Czech Republic belong to the second group where child poverty is high in unemployed households, and where women are unable to go back to work, because the labour market is inflexible and child care is not as accessible. Low education of parents, their migrant or Roma origin also leads to high risk of poverty in these countries. However, child poverty is only slightly worse than the EU average, due to the relatively generous financial transfers.

The surprising aspect of the research is that Hungary belongs to the second-tier, but also that the researchers found that social financial transfers really have an important effect on reducing child poverty. For the longest time debates have focused on the low efficiency of these financial transfers and different alternatives have been discussed, like linking them to school attendance or providing in-kind support instead. Zsuzsa Ferge, the lead sociologist developing Hungary’s strategy to reduce child poverty points out in the article that recent changes – including the crisis – worsened the situation of children and that many measures go against the strategy and its aims. The newly elected right-wing government clearly focuses on the middle-class instead, still being convinced that they will be the ‘engine’ of economic growth. Hence the quote of the government official at the end of the article which is very telling:”one has to work with the poor, but in a way as not to draw away all the attention and resources from the social middle-class.” Clearly not a pro-poor policy.

Comments: Judit Almasi Senior Human Rights Project Coordinator, Tdh Regional Office, Budapest, Hungary.