Noteworthy News

[Ivan Denisovich]

Around 2.5 million people lived in extreme poverty in Poland in 2023, equivalent to 6.6% of the country’s population, a new report by the Polish branch of the European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) shows. That figure rose 47% compared to the previous year and reached its highest level in almost a decade.

EAPN ascribes the rise to Poland’s economic situation, in particular persistently high inflation, which reached a 26-year high of 18.4% in early 2023. But it also warns that “systemic problems in social policy” have left many struggling, in particular families with children, seniors and disabled people.

The network has called on the authorities to introduce automatic indexation of benefits and to create a more “coherent system of income criteria”, because the current system results in some people who live in extreme poverty being above the statutory poverty threshold to qualify for support.

This is the result of replacing right wingers with another bunch of right wingers since 2005.