The Ripper
03-21-2011, 09:03 PM
Almost twice as many people live in poverty now compared to 15 years ago. In 1995, Statistics Finland estimated that about 370,000 people in Finland were poor, but now the figure is nearly 700,000.
At the same time, income support, a subsidy for those struggling to afford even the basic necessities, has remained unchanged. It lags a couple of decades behind the level of other income trends. Income support is now 40 percent behind growth in earnings.
The numbers of people receiving income support have risen between 1990 and 2009 by 60,000 people. Because of cuts to basic security, income support has become a lasting means of income for a part of those relying on support, even though its original purpose was to cover short-term emergencies.
TV2 programme Silminnäkijä: Elämää köyhänä (Eyewitness: The Lives of the Poor) discusses on Monday evening whether middle- and high-earners can understand what it is like to scrape by on the incomes of the poor.
YLE
YLE News (http://yle.fi/uutiset/news/2011/03/numbers_of_the_poor_have_doubled_since_1995_245211 7.html)
At the same time, income support, a subsidy for those struggling to afford even the basic necessities, has remained unchanged. It lags a couple of decades behind the level of other income trends. Income support is now 40 percent behind growth in earnings.
The numbers of people receiving income support have risen between 1990 and 2009 by 60,000 people. Because of cuts to basic security, income support has become a lasting means of income for a part of those relying on support, even though its original purpose was to cover short-term emergencies.
TV2 programme Silminnäkijä: Elämää köyhänä (Eyewitness: The Lives of the Poor) discusses on Monday evening whether middle- and high-earners can understand what it is like to scrape by on the incomes of the poor.
YLE
YLE News (http://yle.fi/uutiset/news/2011/03/numbers_of_the_poor_have_doubled_since_1995_245211 7.html)