The economic and social pandemic is not over. Italy’s recovery from COVID-19 has seen one in ten Italians get worse, especially in the south of the country. And the concern caused by poverty among children is accompanied by concern for those who have large families and who do not know how to make it to the end of the month, Avvenire reports, citing Rador.

Data from “Weak Links”, the report on poverty in Italy by Caritas Association, presented as per tradition today, October 17, the World Day against Poverty, presents an image of the tragic year 2021 of a hidden Italy, one that no longer knows how to govern and that lives in poverty every day .

Last year, Italy’s marginalized increased even more, reaching 1,960,000 families living in absolute poverty, equivalent to 5,571,000 people, a figure that represents 9.4% of the permanent population.

Incidence is higher in the south (10%), while it is significantly lower in the northwest (6.7% vs. 7.9%). Between 2020 and 2021, the poverty rate increased significantly in families with at least 4 people, where the main person is between the ages of 35 and 55, in the case of foreign-born families, and in those with only one income.

The poverty rate continues to be inversely proportional to age: the percentage of absolute poverty is 14.2% among minors, i.e. almost 1.4 million children and youth, decreases to 11.4% among 18-34-year-olds, is 11.1% for 35- yearly 64, while for people over 65 it drops to 5.3%. The majority of people helped by Caritas are again immigrants, who received 8% more requests for help in 2021.

Men and women make up exactly half of the association’s beneficiaries, and the average age is almost 46 years.

They often have a “fluctuating situation”, which means they come in and out of need through temporary employment contracts. Foreign-born incidence increased from 2020 and now stands at 55%, even with peaks of 65.7% and 61.2% in the Northwest and Northeast, where the immigrant presence is larger and living costs are higher

In the south and on the islands, Italian beneficiaries predominate, accounting for 68.3% and 74.2% of users, respectively.

Another reason for concern is the fact that in Italy, where social mobility has been blocked for many years, in addition to more and more minors being in poverty, it has become hereditary, as confirmed by a study of intergenerational beneficiaries, which shows how children of less-educated people drop out early, while more than half of children of graduates graduate with a high school or high school diploma.

More than 70% of parents of Caritas beneficiaries work in unskilled professions, and 7 out of 10 mothers are housewives. Approximately one in five children maintains the same position as their parents, while 42.8% registered a downward trend.

“The social elevator is broken, it has not been working for some time – and few people are interested in repairing it,” condemned Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, president of the CEI, speaking at the presentation of the Caritas Italy report in Rome. The challenge is not only to try to do the right thing, but to do what is required of us, which is necessary to answer the many problems.”

Speaking about the poverty report data, Zuppi noted that “this is an alarming report, a report that should help us choose and consciously live the difficult weeks and months that we are facing, which require and will require great solidarity, quick responses, because suffering is not can wait, it shouldn’t wait, but also answers that can look to the future. However, in order to look into the future, we must have a good understanding of the present, otherwise we are content with simple conclusions, and the vision of the future remains completely disconnected from real data.”