Almost 2 million Poles inactive in poverty. Experts uncover why the strategy is not working!

Despite optimistic data from the Central Statistical Office (GUS) on the decline of utmost poverty, Poland faces a serious challenge. In 2024, although the degree of this most dangerous kind of poorness decreased by 1,4 percent points, inactive almost 2 million Poles lives below the minimum of existence. This is simply a situation which, according to experts, may have far-reaching political and social consequences, and the current measures of poorness are already obsolete. So why, despite improving the labour market, are so many inactive incapable to meet the basic needs? And what does this mean for the future of Polish social policy in 2025?

A amazing decline in utmost poverty? Nearly 2 Million Poles inactive in Threat

Recent CSO data, published at the end of June 2024, bring any relief: the degree of the threat of utmost poorness has fallen from 6.6% in 2023 to 5.2%. This is simply a noticeable improvement, but little than the increase recorded between 2022 and 2023. prof. Sławomir Kalinowski of the Institute of agrarian improvement and Agriculture of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IRWiR PAN) emphasizes in his conversation with Newseria that although the decline is significant, we are inactive talking about the law two million citizenswho do not meet the minimum level of needs. This is an alarming number that raises questions about the effectiveness of current actions.

The basis for setting the utmost poorness line is the minimum of existence estimated by the Institute of Labour and Social Affairs (IPisS). This is the level of consumption so low that it impedes endurance and constitutes the threat to psychophysical human development. According to Prof. Kalinowski, the main reason for the decrease in the utmost poorness rate is simply a crucial improvement in the labour market. The unemployment rate in Poland remains at a evidence low level, oscillating around 5%, and according to the Population economical Activity survey (BAEL), this is even somewhat above 2%. It is simply a historically low value that has straight translated into a lesser threat of utmost poorness for part of society.

System Paradox: Why Does aid Not scope the Needed?

While utmost poorness is decreasing, the hazard of comparative poorness increased in 2024. 13.3%, which means an increase of about 1 percent point compared to the erstwhile year. Moreover, the social assistance strategy in Poland faces a serious paradox. Legal poverty, the threshold for applying for social assistance money, was set in 2024 2.6%. It's a drop by 1.5 pp. compared to 2023 and up to 4.1 pp. from 2021. The problem is that the limits of the threat to this category of poorness have not been raised since 2022.

The current threshold is about PLN 776 per single individual and somewhat above 600 zł for a household of four. Prof. Kalinowski warns: "If statutory poorness is lower than utmost poverty, then there is simply a paradox that people who do not meet the minimum level of needs, at the same time have no chance of receiving social benefits from the social assistance centre." This means that about 700 1000 PolesAlthough surviving in utmost poverty, he is not eligible for support. Experts propose that this threshold should exceed the PLN 900 for a single-person holding. This gap in the strategy makes it impossible to scope those who request it the most, deepening their exclusion.

New Challenges and Hidden Forms of poorness in Poland

Poverty is not just a substance of income. Research, specified as “Poor Poverty” by prof. Sławomir Kalinowski, points to Problems: low education, disability, chronic illness, deficiency of work, dysfunction of families and even inheritance of poverty. Many people experience a sense of social isolation and deficiency of support. Moreover, together with technological advancement and social change, they appear new forms of povertywhich require immediate attention.

Experts are alerting the request to monitor and combat digital, energy and transport poverty. Digital poorness means deficiency of net access or basic digital tools, which makes access to education, work or public services hard in today's world. Energy poorness is inability to cover the costs of heating or electricity, and transport – deficiency of access to means of transport, which is isolated from the labour marketplace and services. These hidden forms of poverty, frequently invisible in conventional statistics, increase exclusion and require immediate, innovative solutions to avoid becoming problem number 1 in 2025.

Key to Change: How Do Experts Want to Fight poorness in 2025?

In the face of these challenges, experts, including Prof. Sławomir Kalinowski and Dr. hab. Aleksandra Łuczak, appeal for urgent changes in the approach to combating poverty. A key step is to introduce nonsubjective measures of poverty, which will combine figures with real social needs. The authors of the "Objective measurement of poverty: Challenges and opportunities in practice in the context of social policy" study propose the creation of local barometers of poorness and social exclusion. These tools would show changes in public wealth in advance and let effective prevention at local level before the problem escalates.

Also essential close cooperation between social services centres, NGOs, local governments and government. Investment in human capital by providing access to education, vocational training and wellness and intellectual care It's a priority. Prof. Kalinowski emphasises that social assistance must be "active, aid to get out of poverty, not only to be a social benefit". This means expanding financial resources for the social assistance system, simplifying procedures and developing activation services to aid mediocre people find employment and improve competences. Without these changes, the fight against poorness will only be extinguishing fires, not a systemic solution.

Map of Polish Poverty: Where Does poorness Strike The Strongest?

Professor Sławomir Kalinowski points to 3 major “axes of poorness and social exclusion” in Poland, which find where poorness is most severe and where interventions are most urgent. First of all, these are rural and peripheral areas, distant from large cities, where the chances of gathering basic needs are much lower due to limited access to services, work and infrastructure.

The second axis is former popegeer areas. Despite more than 30 years since the liquidation of the State Farms, these areas inactive face established patterns of poorness and exclusion, and their inhabitants are frequently incapable to scope a adequate standard of living. The third, amazing axis follows the diagonal line from Szczecin to Rzeszów. As the expert points out, any people located on the right side of this line (meaning east and south-eastern Poland) have little chance of gathering needs. knowing these geographical and social poorness patterns is crucial to creating effective, targeted support programmes in 2025 and in subsequent years.