Economic crisis has impacted on children’s living standards
Living conditions for households with children deteriorated considerably from 2009 to 2013, according to the results of the Hellenic Statistical Authority’s Income and Household Living Standards Survey.
Besides the decline in the provision of recreational activities for children during the crisis, the survey revealed that there was a significant increase in the number of households that were unable to offer their younger members a meal with meat or fish on a daily basis.
According to the report, the rate of families that were unable to cover the costs of children going on school trips rose from 7.6 percent in 2009 to 25.4 percent last year. The percentage of households unable to offer their children the appropriate space for studying (for financial reasons) climbed from 11.7 percent in 2009 to 18.4 percent in 2013.
The figure for households that could not offer children a daily meal of meat or fish reached 7.4 percent last year from 4 percent in 2009, while that of families whose children didn’t get to eat fresh fruit and vegetables at least once a day quadrupled from 1.1 percent in 2009 to 4.4 percent in 2013.
More than one in five households living below the poverty line (20.8 percent) said they could not provide their children with the equipment needed for outdoor recreational activities last year, while 15.4 percent could not afford toys for indoor play.
As much as 36.3 percent of poor families said that they could not afford for their children to participate in regular entertainment activities.
Only 66.9 percent of poor households were able to afford events for children such as birthday parties, and 18.4 percent of all households said they had no space in their home for their children to do their homework. This climbed to 31.6 percent when it came to poor families.
