Children and the Cost-of-living Crisis: How food and energy inflation has increased poverty in households with children in the European Union

Children and the Cost-of-living Crisis: How food and energy inflation has increased poverty in households with children in the European Union

AUTHOR(S)
Dominic Richardson; Alessandro Carraro; Margherita Squarcina; Fernando Flores Tavares; Gwyther Rees

Published: 2023 Innocenti Research Briefs
Children and families throughout the European Union are facing a cost-of-living crisis that has eroded living standards to such an extent that up to an additional 3 million children in 26 EU countries are now living in conditions equivalent to relative income poverty.

For families and children in the EU, the cost-of-living crisis is being experienced primarily through higher prices for food and energy. In addition, increasing interest rates make borrowing less affordable, placing a growing strain on the sustainability of businesses, mortgages, loans and government debt.

This research brief presents the first results of an analysis of how the cost-of-living crisis has affected the poverty experienced by households with children in the European Union (EU). It takes account of sharply increasing food and energy prices to calculate the additional number of children living in poverty, in real terms, due to the crisis. The brief also recommends that policymakers and governments protect children and families with steps that include expanding and index-linking child cash benefits to cover the needs of families, implementing guarantees to provide free meals for children in schools and providing services that prevent ‘holiday hunger’ when schools are closed in the summer months.
A Rapid Review of Economic Policy and Social Protection Responses to Health and Economic Crises and Their Effects on Children: Lessons for the COVID-19 pandemic response

A Rapid Review of Economic Policy and Social Protection Responses to Health and Economic Crises and Their Effects on Children: Lessons for the COVID-19 pandemic response

Published: 2020 Innocenti Working Papers

This rapid review seeks to inform the initial and long-term public policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, by assessing evidence on past economic policy and social protection responses to health and economic crises and their effects on children and families. The review focuses on virus outbreaks/emergencies, economic crises and natural disasters, which, like the COVID-19 pandemic, were 'rapid' in onset, had wide-ranging geographical reach, and resulted in disruption of social services and economic sectors, without affecting governance systems. Evidence is also drawn from the HIV/AIDS pandemic, due to its impacts on adult mortality rates and surviving children.

The available evidence on the effects of economic policy and social protection responses is uneven across outcomes, regions, and type of policy response as a large body of literature focused on social assistance programmes. Future research on the COVID-19 pandemic can prioritize the voices of children and the marginalized, assess the effects of expansionary and austerity measures,  examine the role of design and implementation, social care services, pre-existing macro-level health, demographic and health conditions and the diverse regional health and economic impacts of the pandemic. The paper also provides key lessons for public policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Understanding Child Deprivation in the European Union: The Multiple Overlapping Deprivation Analysis (EU-Moda) Approach

Understanding Child Deprivation in the European Union: The Multiple Overlapping Deprivation Analysis (EU-Moda) Approach

AUTHOR(S)
Yekaterina Chzhen; Chris De Neubourg; Ilze Plavgo; Marlous de Milliano

Published: 2014 Innocenti Working Papers
Poverty has serious consequences for children’s well-being as well as for their achievements in adult life. The Multiple Overlapping Deprivation Analysis for the European Union (EU-MODA) compares the living conditions of children across the EU member states, plus Iceland and Norway. Rooted in the established multidimensional poverty measurement tradition, EU-MODA uses the international framework of child rights to inform the construction of indicators and dimensions essential to children’s material well-being, taking into account the needs of children at various stages of their life cycle. The study contributes to the literature on monetary child poverty and material deprivation in the EU by analysing several dimensions of child deprivation individually and simultaneously, constructing multidimensional deprivation indices, and studying the overlaps between monetary poverty and multidimensional deprivation.
Child Poverty and the Great Recession in the United States

Child Poverty and the Great Recession in the United States

AUTHOR(S)
Marianne Bitler; Hilary Hoynes; Elira Kuka

Published: 2014 Innocenti Working Papers
In the midst of the Great Recession, median real household income fell from $61,597 in 2007 to $57,025 in 2010 and $51,007 in 2012. Given that the effects of the Great Recession on unemployment were greater for less skilled workers the authors expect the effects of the Great Recession on household incomes to be larger in relative terms for individuals in the lower end of the income distribution. To explore this issue, in this paper, they comprehensively examine the effects of the Great Recession on child poverty.
Medición de la pobreza infantil: Nuevas tablas clasificatorias de la pobreza infantil en los países ricos del mundo

Medición de la pobreza infantil: Nuevas tablas clasificatorias de la pobreza infantil en los países ricos del mundo

AUTHOR(S)
Peter Adamson

Published: 2012 Innocenti Report Card
Los informes anteriores de esta serie han demostrado que no proteger a los niños de la pobreza es uno de los errores más costosos que puede cometer una sociedad. Son los propios niños quienes asumen el mayor de todos los costos, pero también sus países deben pagar un muy alto precio por su error: menor nivel de competencias y productividad, menor nivel de logros en materia de salud y educación, mayor probabilidad de desempleo y dependencia de la seguridad social, mayor costo de los sistemas de protección judicial y social, y pérdida de cohesión social. En el presente informe se incluyen los datos más recientes comparables a nivel internacional sobre privación infantil y pobreza infantil relativa. Tomadas en su conjunto, estas dos medidas diferentes ofrecen el mejor panorama disponible actualmente sobre la pobreza infantil en las naciones más ricas del mundo.
Measuring Child Poverty: New league tables of child poverty in the world's rich countries

Measuring Child Poverty: New league tables of child poverty in the world's rich countries

AUTHOR(S)
Peter Adamson

Published: 2012 Innocenti Report Card
Report Card 10 considers two views of child poverty in the world’s advanced economies: a measure of absolute deprivation, and a measure of relative poverty. The first measure is a 14-item Child Deprivation Index that represents a significant new development in international monitoring, drawing on data from the European Union’s Statistics on Incomes and Living Conditions survey of 125,000 households in 31 European countries, which has included a section on children for the first time. Children were considered 'deprived' if they lacked two or more of the items, which ranged from three meals a day, to an Internet connection. The second measure covers the EU and an additional six OECD countries (Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland and the United States) and examines the percentage of children living below their national 'poverty line' - defined as 50 per cent of median disposable household income.
ПРОБЛЕМЫ ДЕТСКОЙ ИНВАЛИДНОСТИ

ПРОБЛЕМЫ ДЕТСКОЙ ИНВАЛИДНОСТИ

Published: 2005 Innocenti Insights
В настоящий доклад включены три новых элемента ис- следований, которые содержат данные, качественный анализ и личные интервью. Результаты исследования отражают наследие прошлого, стремление к изменени-ям и области, требующие принятия мер. Помещение в специализированные учреждения, сегрегация и дискри- минация все еще являются характерными чертами сре- ды, в которой повсюду в этом регионе живут дети с ог-раниченными возможностями. Тем не менее становится все очевиднее, что отношение общества к инвалиднос- ти меняется, и можно привести много конкретных при-меров интегрирования детей с ограниченными возмож- ностями в общество. Первое и главное условие, необ-ходимое для обеспечения соблюдения прав детей с ог-раниченными возможностями в регионе, заключается в том, чтобы положить конец общепринятой практике помещения таких детей в специализированные детские ПРЕДИСЛОВИЕ Я хочу, чтобы вы написали, что я не считаю себя больной. Наоборот – хорошо- жить и быть молодой. Валя, 17 лет, с ограниченными возможностями, живет дома, Болгария учреждения и особые школы. Это требует от местныхвластей выделения бoльших ресурсов и оказания боль-шей поддержки семьям, имеющим детей с ограничен-ными возможностями – важных шагов в пер- од истори- ческих усилий по восстановлению демократического гражданского общества в этих странах, переживающих переходный период.
Children and Disability in Transition in CEE/CIS and Baltic States

Children and Disability in Transition in CEE/CIS and Baltic States

Published: 2005 Innocenti Insights
This Innocenti Insight looks at how children with disabilities and their families have fared in the rapidly changing environment of this region since transition in the early 1980’s. It builds upon the significant body of research and policy reflections accrued at the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre (IRC) with the support of national statistical offices in the 27 countries of the region. UNICEF IRC has tracked and explored the impact on children and their families of economic and social changes in the region since transition began. This report draws upon three new pieces of research that include data, a qualitative survey and first-person interviews. The results highlight the legacies of the past, the momentum for change and areas where action is further needed. Institutionalisation, segregation and discrimination are still prominent features of the environment in which children with disabilities live across the region.
Children at Risk in Central and Eastern Europe: Perils and Promises

Children at Risk in Central and Eastern Europe: Perils and Promises

Published: 1997 Regional Monitoring Report
This Report looks at the changes in risks facing the 100 million children in the 18 countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. Eight types of risk are considered in turn: poverty; war and dislocation; environmental degradation; health and health service deterioration; changes in family formation including rising family-breakdown rates; falling access to education and rising truancy; youth lifestyle and health including an increase in drug abuse and the occurrence of sexually transmitted diseases; juvenile crime. The Report also indicates that institutional care, fostering and adoption remain in need of sweeping reform, examines the failure of substitute care and emphasizes the preventive role of family support policies.
Children at Risk in Central and Eastern Europe: Perils and Promises  - a Summary

Children at Risk in Central and Eastern Europe: Perils and Promises - a Summary

Published: 1997 Regional Monitoring Report
This Report looks at the changes in risks facing the 100 million children in the 18 countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. Eight types of risk are considered in turn: poverty; war and dislocation; environmental degradation; health and health service deterioration; changes in family formation including rising family-breakdown rates; falling access to education and rising truancy; youth lifestyle and health including an increase in drug abuse and the occurrence of sexually transmitted diseases; juvenile crime. The Report also indicates that institutional care, fostering and adoption remain in need of sweeping reform, examines the failure of substitute care and emphasizes the preventive role of family support policies.
Bambini a rischio in Europa centrale ed orientale: pericoli e prospettive - sintesi

Bambini a rischio in Europa centrale ed orientale: pericoli e prospettive - sintesi

Published: 1997 Regional Monitoring Report
Questa pubblicazione è una sintesi del quarto Regional Monitoring Report che copre 18 paesi dell'Europa Centrale ed Orientale e dell'ex Unione Sovietica. Il quarto rapporto contiene: un aggiornamento sui cambiamenti nelle condizioni di vita delle famiglie e dell'infanzia; un indagine sui fattori di rischio per l'infanzia durante la transizione; un'analisi speciale sui bambini affidati alle cure pubbliche.
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