Ismael Bermúdez
12/16/2020 9:44 AM
Clarín.com
Economy
Updated 12/16/2020 9:44 AM
With the Universal Child Allowance (AUH) - which from this month is $ 3,717 per child under 18 years - less than half of the children's expenses are covered, mainly food.
And almost all parents admit that
they cannot buy the same food as a year ago.
Today 2.2 million parents receive this aid for 4.4 million boys, girls and adolescents under 18 years of age.
It is one of the conclusions of the Survey "The impact of the pandemic on families with children and adolescents" released by UNICEF, carried out between October 24 and November 11.
"About 64% of the households that receive the Alimentar Card indicate that they cover
half or more
of their food expenses with it."
Consulted by
Clarín
, the Minister of Social Development, Daniel Arroyo said that this Report "is very valuable, it marks the critical social situation that led to the implementation of a set of measures to cushion this state of affairs, but
there is also a problem very serious about the cost of food
. "
Regarding the main income protection measure for children, the Universal Child Allowance, the Report says that 88% of those who receive it allocate these resources to the purchase of food and beverages.
More than half (53%) state that the amount received is enough to cover less than half of the expenses required by the boys and girls.
Another 36% cover only half of those expenses.
9% more than half.
And 2%, all or almost all expenses.
In turn, 96% of families indicate that they cannot afford to buy the same things as a year ago, which would indicate a deterioration in the sufficiency of AUH in the face of price increases.
Unemployed people, unregistered workers, domestic staff, social monotax workers or registered in employment plans have the right to collect the AUH.
In the last 12 months,
the value of the AUH had an increase of 35.3%
, well below the cost of basic foods that, according to INDEC, increased 42.9%, as of November.
The Report indicates that "in relation to household income, at the end of October and beginning of November,
41% of households stated that their labor income had decreased
."
With the pandemic and quarantine, the greatest job losses occurred among salaried employees and informal self-employed, sectors that with minor children are entitled to the AUH.
For this reason, and beyond the opening of activities, the progressive relaxation of quarantine and the implementation of the work and production assistance program (ATP), a significant proportion of households with children and adolescents still face reduction of your earned income.
The loss of household income increases to 53% in the recipients of the AUH.
This drop in income means that a high proportion of households with AUH resort to
debt to buy food
, pay for services such as electricity, water, gas, internet, and even that they must stop paying for these services or go into debt with businesses buying food on credit .
"Such a situation rises to 30% when it comes to homes located in popular neighborhoods and 22% in homes targeted by the AUH",
Meanwhile, the survey “showed that
28% of all surveyed households had stopped buying some food
due to income limitations, an increase of 2.2 percentage points compared to what was surveyed in July.
Households headed by women, large households and those with at least one person with a disability also show greater difficulties in accessing food than the average ”.
In this critical context, the Report indicates that 42% of the surveyed households affirmed that they had access to the Emergency Family Income (IFE) and 33% to the Alimentar Card or other food support mechanisms.
However, the IFE does not continue and the Alimentar card reaches AUH parents with daughters and sons up to and including 6 years old or disabled, with no age limit.
Until November, the Alimentar card was $ 4,000 for families with one child and $ 6,000 with 2 or more children.
This month, there is a booster and it goes to $ 8,000 and $ 12,000.
And in January, the Ministry of Social Development will set the amounts for 2021.
Based on all these data, and “given the depth of the effects that the crisis has generated in households, it is necessary to continue strengthening social protection programs that support families to compensate for the fall in their income, reinforcing the items that directly affect children, such as health, food and education, among others.
The magnitude of the challenge adds one more argument to think of universal, unconditional responses to cover all girls, boys and adolescents and that, in particular, are of a sufficient magnitude to allow all families to leave (or avoid falling in) situations of extreme poverty ”.
NE
Look also
Unicef alert: half of working adolescents started in quarantine
Despite state aid, half of the households lost income this year