The figures published in the 4th Federal Poverty Year Book make clear that 15.3% of the citizens in Belgium were living in poverty in 2011. Meanwhile, more than one in five households said that they had trouble making ends meet. Certain groups such as one-parent families and the self-employed are represented in increasing numbers in the figures. Furthermore, poverty no longer appears to be a mainly urban problem, but is also present in rural areas where a large numbers of elderly people and one parent families live.
English: http://www.deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws.english/Economy/140320_Poverty_report
French: http://www.acco.be/download/nl/313527676/samplechapter/pauvret__en_belgique ...
Dutch: http://www.politics.be/persmededelingen/38221/
For more information, please contact the editor Jan Cremers, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) cbn-aias@uva.nl or the communications officer at the ETUI, Mariya Nikolova mnikolova@etui.org. For previous issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit http://www.etui.org/E-Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net.