22,000 Children Living on Less than €69 a Month (9)

Published: 28.03.2012 12:27

Photo: Postimees/Scanpix

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While a report released by Children's Ombudsman Indrek Teder last month found that 45,000 children in Estonia were living below the absolute poverty line last year, nearly half of that total, or 22,000, had to make do on less then 69 euros per month, Eesti Päevaleht reported.

Statistician Ene-Margit Tiit told the newspaper that the definition of "absolute poverty" was a political decision, with each country determining where to draw the line on what it considers the minimum needed to cover basic human needs.

In Estonia, the line is set at 174 euros per month for a person living alone, and in the case of households, 87 euros per month per child.

The report commissioned by Teder's office revealed that an additional 18,000 children were at risk of absolute poverty, putting the number of children threatened by poverty at 63,000, or one fifth of the nation's total.

 

Steve Roman

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Comments (9)

  • Weird

    28.03.2012 12:46

    I dont get it! What is meant by poverty of children? In my openion, if they are getting less pocket money, its just because of increased prices of household consumables, so parents cant spare to give them anymore!

  • ActNow

    28.03.2012 13:16

    A shame, nothing else. And: to be changed ! Right away.

  • @Weird

    28.03.2012 14:35

    Meant is: 350 Euro net as houshold income divided by - let's say 2 grown ups and 3 children makes 70 EURO per capita. This has nothing to do with pocket money.

  • ameeriklane

    28.03.2012 15:05

    I looked it up since the article mentioned each country is allowed to come up with their own definition of poverty. For the US, it's 680 EUR/month for a single person, compared to 174 EUR/month in Estonia. What is strange to me is that I find most products (food, clothes, durable goods) cheaper in the US than Estonia, and yet the poverty bar is set much higher.

  • Mart Mang

    28.03.2012 15:12

    You're closing food banks and now this? Don't be slipping into the past when the future looks so promising. I mean, haven't you learned anything these past twenty years of freedom?

  • Poor

    28.03.2012 16:49

    Yes, Ameeriklane, you are right, no one can survive with just 174 EUR per month in Estonia. I is just a definition which does not reflect reality. So the real picture might be even worse than the statistic offers.

  • @ameeriklane

    28.03.2012 19:02

    What are rents in the US compared to Estonia? What about medical coverage costs? It isn't all about the cost of milk and bread.

  • ameeriklane

    28.03.2012 22:45

    Definitely housing costs and health care costs are higher in the US, and neither of those are small numbers. However, I wonder if this is enough to justify orders of magnitude of difference between poverty levels in real numbers.

  • Danish

    03.04.2012 15:22

    It is pretty simple , the Estonian goverment have stated the 174€ as line of poverty not because its the real point of poverty , but because its the amount that fits the govorment the best. I love living in Estonia , speak the language and have many Estonian freinds , but i will never learn to understand the way the state operates , the state operates only to benefit the ritch and high / upper middle class. I think the reason that i dont understand it is that i am from a social contry were the main task for the goverment is to serve the population ( both ritch AND poor ) , were in Estonia the govorment are there to serve them self , steal with both hands and to lie in the face of normal people. People are poor , roads are bad , health system works auqvard , food prices are way to high ( at the same level as in Denmark ) , banks are robbing the private person with skyhigh fees and mark up of interest. No one seems to care about this in parlament , they are more focused on getting more "hand money" every month or running taxi bills through the roof ( or pleasing the russians in Tallinn ) Shame on them and lets hope that it does not end in arnaki.