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Tafel issuing office: More and more people in need
Photo: Christophe Gateau / dpa
The President of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), Marcel Fratzscher, is concerned about the high level of social and economic inequality in the country.
"The social gap is currently widening, even more than in the pandemic," Fratzscher told the newspapers of the Bayern media group.
The most vulnerable are hit the hardest.
40 percent of people also have no savings or reserves.
"The record high inflation, for example, is extremely antisocial because people with low incomes suffer much more from it," said Fratzscher.
Inflation is three times higher for them than for people with high incomes because they have to spend most of their money on basic services, i.e. energy and food.
It's similar in business, Fratzscher told the newspapers.
"Some of the big ones are making big profits even in these times, while many medium-sized companies, the small ones, the bakery around the corner, can hardly make ends meet." A "targeted distribution policy" is therefore necessary instead of pouring money in with the watering can to distribute.
Rush to the panels
Most recently, the Tafeln in Germany had reported that never before had so many needy people come to them.
"Since the beginning of the year, we have seen an increase in customers of 50 percent," said the chairman of the umbrella organization Tafel Deutschland, Jochen Brühl, of the Düsseldorf "Rheinische Post".
A total of about two million people would come.
Around 960 food banks nationwide distribute food that can no longer be sold to the needy.
Most recently, the German Institute for Economic Research estimated at the end of September that almost 1.1 million people would get their supplies from the food banks.
It was based on a survey from 2020.
According to the DIW survey, three quarters of the people who use food banks live on basic security.
Many are at risk of poverty and have health problems.
Single parents and couples with children use the boards particularly frequently.
A quarter of the people who benefited from the panels are children.
ptz/AFP
