Teachers, childcare workers, police 'finding it difficult to make ends meet', EU study finds 

Almost a quarter of teachers in the EU are struggling to make ends meet. Picture: Danny Lawson/PA Wire

Teachers, childcare and transport workers, police, and carers are finding it difficult to make ends meet across the EU, despite 115 policy measures in the past six months to combat inflation and fuel costs.

An analysis presented to labour and social affairs ministers in Prague revealed stark figures about the worries faced by families as inflation spiked in the past few months.

Ivailo Kalfin, executive director of the Dublin-based EU agency Eurofound, or the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, told ministers that just under 16% of homes are in arrears for utility bills, while 53% are struggling to make ends meet.

The figure in Ireland by way of comparison to the EU average is 15% and 45% respectively.

Just under half of food processing workers in the EU are struggling, 43% of personal carers, 35% of transport and childcare workers, 32% of truck and bus drivers, and almost a quarter of police, firefighters, and teachers.

More than a quarter of food processing, transport, and storage workers cannot predict their earnings in the future, along with almost a fifth of carers, childcare, and truck and bus drivers. 

Nearly half of single-parent homes are in difficulty, a third of families with more than two adults and children, and a quarter of single people are also in difficulty.

Since April 2022, the EU PolicyWatch database has recorded 115 policies to cushion the impacts of rising energy prices, Mr Kalfin said.

Some 42 related to reducing households' energy bills, 41 to increasing income in general, 14 to target rising fuel costs, 12 to the green transition, and six to other inflation issues.

The data comes as the European Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights Nicolas Schmit, said there were an estimated 95.4m people in the EU at risk of poverty or social exclusion last year, equivalent to 21.7% of the total population. 

Numbers 'really frightening'

Describing the numbers as "really frightening" on the UN's International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, Mr Schmit said relative poverty was declining from 2016 to 2018 but picked up again in 2019 and 2020.

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"When it comes to adequate income, having a job is increasingly not necessarily a viable route out of poverty. In 2019, almost one in 10 workers experienced in-work poverty, a situation that is absolutely unacceptable.

"The Covid-19 pandemic halted the positive trend in poverty reduction over the past 25 years. 

"The combined impacts of the Russia's war of aggression to Ukraine and of climate change may be further detrimental if we do not take bold measures to support the most vulnerable but also those households that are suffering from skyrocketing price increases of energy without seeing their income being adapted to this evolution," he said.