Survey: Greek households trapped between poverty and debts

More than one-third of the Greek households are trapped and squeezed between poverty and debts as the disposable income dramatically decreased, a survey conducted in December 2014 found out. According to a the survey conducted by the Institute for Small Enterprises of the Greek Federation of Craftsmen and Merchants (IME-GSEBEE), households in Greece have great difficulty coping with every day obligations, they sink in poverty and accumulating private debt, impaired quality of life and growing uncertainty about the future.

The study found also that the households were charged with additional economical obligations (see: taxes) than in the previous 3.5 years of bailout program and austerity.

Survey in detail:

More than 3 out of 10 households say they live on annual family income of the lowest income level, that is below  €10,000. The rate is highest in the categories of households with 2 and 4 members.

93.7% of households experienced a significant decline in income after the outbreak of the crisis, with the   clear trend of widening inequality.

46.9% of the population said that the family income is insufficient to meet their needs.

  55% of the population said they had additional non-own resources (borrow from relatives, friends, bank loans, sales of assets, pawnshops).

 35.9% of households, that is more than one million people, said that they had at least one family member without work. From these, only 8,9% receive unemployment allowance.

The accumulation of household financial obligations in 2014 continued and expanded marginally compared with the previous year. More than 1 in 3 households are late in paying utility bills, taxes, social scecurity contributions, bank loans and mortgages etc due to inability to pay.

42.5% of households keep negative expectations regarding the ability to meet basic obligations next year.  35.4% think, they will be unable to pay taxes next year.

Households have increased their private expenditure on health care, due to increased private participation and reducing the public expenditure on health.

More than 54% of households were asked to pay more than 500 euros for property tax in 2014. The corresponding figure in 2013 was 46.8%.

Three in ten households express fear that they will lose their home because both accumulated obligations and additional charges (mortgage, taxes and other).

Τhe survey was conducted by MARCAE by order of IME-GSEBEE in December 2014 among a  sample of 1025 representative households across the country.

 

Survey in Greek here in IME-GSEBEE

PS I thought the unified property tax was “more just” than the previous property tax and that property owners had to pay less than before. Oh wait….

Left: low-income lemon

Right: high-income lemon