Overview
- The Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband, publishing its armutsbericht Tuesday, found 13.3 million people — 16.1% of the population — were income-poor in 2025, a rise of 0.6 percentage points from 2024.
- Income-poor means household net income below 60% of the median, with especially high rates for single-person households (30.3%), single parents (28.9%), young adults 18–25 (24.8%) and people 65+ (19.5%).
- About 1.8 million people work full time yet remain poor and roughly 4.6 million experience material and social deprivation, with affected households paying on average about 44% of income for housing.
- The findings have sharpened a policy clash: welfare groups and the opposition demand stronger measures such as a €15 minimum wage and more housing support while the government is moving ahead with cost-saving steps including the July 1 transformation of Bürgergeld into a stricter Grundsicherung, proposed Wohngeld cuts and changes to care payments.
- The rise reverses a 2020–2023 downward trend and makes this month’s and summer’s reforms decisive for millions’ living standards, with an expert pension commission report due at the end of June likely to feed further budget and social-policy decisions.