Caritas provides individual counselling, services, material and financial assistance to people experiencing poverty across Europe. As part of the Caritas Poverty Observatories (CPO), our partner also aims to collect data on poverty in order to promote structural change.
The new research published by Caritas Europa is based on qualitative and quantitative data on the challenges faced by people who consult the services of Caritas in Germany, Greece Italy, and Portugal. Their experience demonstrates that many of the individual problems are deeply rooted in gaps in the social welfare or protection systems in the respective countries. Focusing on qualitative research and the structural causes of poverty has enabled Caritas Europa to look for solutions that address the root causes of social exclusion. Regarding the connection of social exclusion and education, the study has found that poor education and poverty are often interconnected, suggesting that poverty is directly correlated with an inadequate level of educational attainment. To tackle the consequences of social exclusion, Caritas Europa recommends extending good practices such as the EU’s Youth Guarantee to other age groups, particularly to people living on benefits. Moreover, the EU should enable people of the active age group to reconnect to the labour market and explore provisions to recuperate lost school years.
Throughout the 2019 European Semester cycle, Eurodiaconia has called to end child poverty and to tackle in-work poverty by promoting quality employment and access to education and training in a Europe of shared prosperity and sustainable growth. Earlier this year, Eurodiaconia organised a webinar on how the European Pillar of Social Rights is used as one specific tool to promote active support to employment.
To know more about Caritas Europa’s new report please check the Caritas website.
Find more on how the Social Pillar can be used as a tool to promote active support to employment. Watch our webinar online.