In 2012, the Netherlands experienced “the biggest rise in poverty since the onset of the recession in 2008,” notes De Volkskrant. According to the national agency Statistics Netherlands, 1.2 million Dutch citizens, from an overall population of close to 17 million, are considered to be poor: that is to say that once they have paid their fixed costs, they have insufficient money for clothing, furniture, public transport or leisure activities.
The growth in poverty is expected to be less pronounced in 2013 in the wake of “tax measures and pay increases that should boost purchasing power,” notes De Volkskrant. However, the daily also reports that —
… there has been a particularly sharp rise in the number of children living in poverty, a situation which now affects one child in 10 [...] At the same time, more and more are affected by long-term poverty: 381,000 people have been poor for more than three years.
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