&NewLine;<p>The first year of the pandemic affected all European countries&comma; but it had a more negative impact on Portugal and the Portuguese people&period; On October 17&comma; the world celebrates the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty&period; In Portugal 50&percnt; of Portuguese people live below the poverty line&period;&nbsp&semi;</p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>In fact&comma; you have to go back to 2014&comma; year of the end of the third troika intervention in the country&comma; to find such a significant increase in the number of people at risk of poverty or&rsquo&semi;social exclusion&period;</p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h2 class="wp-block-heading">50&percnt; of Portuguese people live below the poverty line&nbsp&semi;</h2>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Poverty in Portugal, which had been on an upward trend since 2017&comma; has continued after two years of pandemic and with the arrival of war in Europe&comma; the situation has even worsened and the forecast is that it will get even worse&period;</p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>This new global crisis is hitting the most vulnerable sections of society in a very particular way, accelerating the deterioration of an already precarious situation&period; Portugal&comma; which has already recorded a worrying trend in terms of increasing poverty&comma; has also been hit by the current panorama&comma; which not only makes it difficult to improve this situation&comma; but also makes it worse&comma; warns&nbsp&semi;<a href="https://www.pordata.pt/portugal/taxa+de+risco+de+pobreza+apos+transferencias+sociais+total+e+por+composicao+do+agregado+domestico+privado-3008">Pordata</a>in a study published Monday&period;</p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>To arrive at these conclusions&comma; data such as "the&rsquo&semi;age&comma; family&comma; work or daily life of citizens" were analyzed to understand that three groups are most affected &colon;&nbsp&semi;</p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>families with children &semi;&nbsp&semi;</li><li>the unemployed &semi;&nbsp&semi;</li><li>people over 65&period;</li></ul>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Luísa Loura&comma; director of Pordata&comma; revealed more concrete data on TV last night&period; Portugal has a poor population&comma; based on income alone &&num;8211&semi; that is&rsquo&semi;without counting social benefits&comma; of around 4&comma;4 million people&comma; a figure that&comma; according to her&comma; falls to around 1&comma;9 million people if&rsquo&semi;one takes into account social aids such as the "Rendimento Social de Inserção &lpar;RSI&rpar;&period;</p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>This is almost half of the Portuguese population&period; If we take a closer look &colon; 40 &percnt; of households earned around €833 per month in 2020&comma; according to Pordata data&period;&nbsp&semi;</p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>As for the unemployed&comma; 2020 saw a reversal of trend&period; If since 2014&comma; the number of&rsquo&semi;registered with Pôle emploi had been falling&comma; the arrival of the pandemic saw an increase of 22&comma;5&percnt; compared with 2019&period; And last year&comma; not only was there no&rsquo&semi;decline&comma; but it increased by&rsquo&semi;around 23 &percnt; compared with the pre-pandemic&period;</p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Although&rsquo&semi;with a less expressive&comma; but significant increase for the overall scenario&comma; in 2021 there are more people receiving the social&rsquo&semi;insertion income &lpar;RSI&rpar;&comma; which represents an increase of 1&comma;6&percnt; compared to 2020&period; This is a trend that has not been seen since 2012&comma; which means that even if the figures are currently a long way from those of ten years ago&comma; the downward trend recorded since then was interrupted last year&period;</p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>As for the elderly &lpar;over 65&rpar;&comma; in 2021&comma; there were 1&comma;6 million additional Social Security pensioners living on pensions below the national minimum wage &lpar;665 euros&rpar;&period;</p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Are Portugal&rsquo&semi;able to face the winter &quest;</h2>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>If we go back to 2020&comma; Portugal was&rsquo&semi;one of the countries <a href="https://vivreauportugalconsulting.com/le-portugal-5e-pays-le-plus-mal-chauffe/" data-type="url" data-id="https://vivreauportugalconsulting.com/le-portugal-5e-pays-le-plus-mal-chauffe/">the lowest ranked</a>&period; It was the second of the 27 European Union countries to have the most people living in housing in poor condition &lpar;25 &percnt;&rpar; and the fifth to experience the most cold &lpar;16 &percnt;&rpar;&period; A year later&comma; in 2021&comma; the picture remained the same&period;</p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>This number rises slightly if we add the people who, despite their income and social assistance, remain above the poverty line, but who do not have the material conditions to live in their own homes; housing&comma; food&comma; heating in their homes&comma; this number rises to around 400,000 people, taking into account the 1&comma;9 billion "&comma; says Luísa Loura&period;</p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>But there is one statistic in which Portugal stands out on the positive side &colon; food deprivation&period; We are the second country among the 27 where more poor people manage to secure a meal of meat&comma; fish or vegetarian equivalent every other day &lpar;6&percnt; don&rsquo&semi;t manage to&rpar;&period;</p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Inflation: a phenomenon that's been going on for years</h2>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Pordata shows in figures what the parties on the left and right have criticized about the draft state &lpar;OE&rpar; budget for 2023&period; In other words&comma; the rate of&semi;inflation is rising&comma; but the national minimum wage&comma; as well as old-age and disability pensions&comma; are not keeping up&period;</p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>However, this is nothing new&period; From 1978&comma; the year from which records are available&comma; to today&comma; including the "main peaks of inflation" in 1984&lpar;28&comma;5&percnt; and the&rsquo&semi;year of the troika's intervention in Portugal&rpar; and in 1990 &lpar;13&comma;6&percnt;&rpar;"&comma; there are "several periods when its increase has been lower than the rise in&rsquo&semi;inflation"&period;</p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>In the current situation&comma; with inflation at 9&comma;3 &percnt; &lpar;INE data for September&rpar;&comma; i&rsquo&semi;ie at 1992 levels &lpar;9&comma;6 &percnt;&rpar;&comma; the loss of purchasing power for minimum wage recipients is real&period;</p>&NewLine;
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