The poverty rate in 2019 fell thanks to social programs such as 500 plus for all children and a good situation on the labor market, Chairman of the Polish Committee of the European Anti-Poverty Network, Ryszard Szarfenberg assessed.
The Central Statistical Office of Poland (GUS) announced that in 2019 extreme poverty fell to 4.2 percent from 5.4 percent in 2018. According to statistics from the Office, the decline in poverty by 1.2 percent in 2019 concerned mainly households most at risk of poverty, i.e. households living mainly with social benefits (other than pensions) and households with at least 3 children below 18 years of age, residents of villages and small towns. In the context of the fall in poverty rate in 2019, the expert said that all children began to receive the 500 plus benefit. “The abolition of the income criterion meant that 500 plus became neutral in terms of taking up work by women, that is, it neither discouraged nor encouraged it,” Szarfenberg explained. As he estimated, 2019 was a very good time for the labor market and for wages in Poland.