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POVERTY

Councils pay out billions to cash-strapped Swedes

Social assistance payments to Swedes struggling to make ends meet jumped by 19 percent during the third quarter, new statistics show.

Published: 30 November 2009 11:35 CET

Leaving out payments to refugees, the increase was 23 percent compared with the same quarter last year, according to a new report from Sweden’s National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) based on figures from Statistics Sweden (SCB).

“Many things may have caused the increase, but the largest part is likely due to the prevailing weak economy and increased unemployment,” Mary Nilsson, head of Socialstyrelsen’s division for individual and family care, said in a statement.

Altogether, Swedish municipalities paid out around 2.72 billion ($389 million) kronor during the third quarter, including assistance to newly arrived refugees.

Payment increased in nearly all of Sweden’s 290 municipalities.

So far this year, social assistance payments – excluding refugee assistance – have increased by 20 percent.

The numbers indicate that payments for 2009 will likely rise by more than the 18 percent increase forecast by the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR).

“The rate of increase doesn’t seem to be slowing down,” SALAR’s Leif Klingensjö told TT.

Most in need of payments are young people and refugees, according to Klingensjö.

He said both groups have difficulties getting into the labour market system during tough economic times, and as a result aren’t able to receive unemployment insurance benefits.

“The biggest problem is getting into the job market. If you haven’t had any contact with the labour market, that’s going to be a problem,” said Klingensjö.

In 276 municipalities, payments increased, while 13 municipalities reported a decrease in payments since the start of the year.

The statistics on Sweden’s social assistance also reveal large differences across the country.

Örebro County in central Sweden had the highest increase in payments during the third quarter, 41 percent, followed by Gävleborg County in eastern Sweden, which saw a 37 percent increase in payments.

In Stockholm, social assistance payments increased by 15 percent during the third quarter.

“One can assume that it has to do with the job market,” Nilsson told the TT news agency.

She added that there may be other connections in explaining the regional differences in social assistance payments such as unemployment insurance payments which have been much lower than both the government and the National Public Employment Agency (Arbetsförmedlingen) expected.

According to Nilsson, the increase in social assistance payments may be a related phenomenon.

“There are a lot of people who aren’t members of an unemployment insurance fund (a-kassa), so that connection may exist,” she said.

In addition, it has become harder for people who have lost their jobs to fulfill the conditions required to receive unemployment insurance payments.

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POVERTY

Queuing for food handouts: How the pandemic has left thousands more going hungry in Spain

A year after the pandemic hit Spain, the need for food handouts has soared in the country, especially by workers in the sectors hit hardest by the economic crisis that followed.

Published: 19 March 2021 09:22 CET
Queuing for food handouts: How the pandemic has left thousands more going hungry in Spain
Reina Chambi, 39, queues to receive food aid outside San Ramon Nonato parish in Madrid. Photos: Oscar del Pozo/AFP

Although her face is covered by a black mask, Rita Carrasco still wears bright red lipstick. But her easy smile faltered when she had to join Madrid’s “hunger lines” for food aid.

“It was a hard moment. I felt shame,” says the 41-year-old Mexican, who lost her job as a theatre teacher when Spain’s tight lockdown began in March 2020.

Since then, she has not been able to find work and has used up all her savings.

Over the past year, the demand for food packages has soared in Spain, especially among those employed in sectors worst-hit by the resulting economic crisis.

Last year, the Catholic charity Caritas said it helped half a million people who had never before asked for food packages.

Since December, Carrasco (pictured above) has been going every Friday to a soup kitchen in Carabanchel, a working-class neighbourhood in southern Madrid, to collect a box of groceries.

She also helps distribute food as a volunteer.

“Giving and receiving changes your perspective,” she says.

Beans and fruit

Wearing yellow vests, the volunteers hand out fruit, cereal and beans at a church building to those lining up in a narrow street outside.

The neighbourhood has a high immigrant population and many in the queue are Latin American women.

People used to be able to eat a hot meal onsite, but virus restrictions now mean they can only serve food to take away.

It is one of four soup kitchens opened last spring by the Alvaro del Portillo charity.

Before the pandemic, there was only one, which served around 900 people.

Since then the number of people using the soup kitchens has soared to around 2,000.

“As the months have gone by, we’ve noticed things easing,” says Susana Hortigosa, who runs the charity.

“Although the level of demand is still higher than before the pandemic, it has dropped slightly because people have started getting their furlough payouts or have found a few hours of work” as the economy has picked up, although most still need help, she says.

The leftwing coalition government of Pedro Sanchez has unblocked €40 billion ($48 billion) since the start of the crisis to fund the furlough scheme.

But with the administration overrun with claims, it has often taken months for the payouts to materialise.

‘A great help’

Such was the case with Reina Chambi (pictured below), a 39-year-old carer for the elderly whose husband was employed at a hotel. When the pandemic hit, they were both left jobless.

“My husband stopped working completely and they took a long time to make the furlough payment so we had to turn to the church for help,” says the mother-of-two, waiting outside a soup kitchen in the freezing wind in the Vallecas district.

While the payout has given the family some breathing room, the couple are still jobless, meaning they still need food packages.

“It’s a great help because we don’t have to buy milk, chickpeas, noodles, those things at least. And we can spend (the payout) on detergent or meat,” says Chambi, who misses the “stable life” she enjoyed after arriving from Bolivia 15 years ago.

Even before 2019, official figures showed more than one in four people in Spain were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, one of the highest rates in Europe.

And the pandemic has left the most vulnerable even more at risk.

“It’s so frustrating. Each time I try to escape this situation, something else happens,” sighs Amanda Gomez, 53.

Divorced just before the pandemic, she is raising two children on her own, one with Down’s Syndrome, on a cleaner’s tiny salary.

But she’s not ready to give up — a keen cook, she’s looking up recipes online to “make the most” of the food she’s got, and she is also beginning to bake cakes to order and deliver them to people’s homes.

The hope is that one day she might be able to open her own bakery.

“You dream big because dreaming doesn’t cost anything,” she says.

“What I want is to be able to go to the local church without asking for anything. Just to help out.”

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