Joint Welfare Association
Berlin (ots)
According to a current report by the Joint Research Center, the risk of being left behind digitally is particularly high for poor people. Compared to those not affected by poverty, poor people are twice as likely to lack the necessary technical equipment and prerequisites for digital participation, and they have far fewer opportunities to develop and expand digital skills through their job. The Paritätische Gesamtverband warns of a growing digital divide and calls for comprehensive measures to ensure digital participation for everyone.
The study shows that around a third of Germans are concerned that they will not be able to keep up with the rapid pace of technical development. However, the risk of actually being left behind is disproportionately higher for those affected by poverty: every fifth person affected by poverty in Germany does not even have their own internet connection. “Digital participation is now an essential prerequisite for comprehensive social, cultural and political participation. Internet access and computers are therefore not a luxury, but are undoubtedly part of the minimum subsistence level,” emphasizes Gwendolyn Stilling, head of the #EqualImNet project on digital participation in the Paritätisches Gesamtverband, and warns: “Poor people are in danger of being severely left behind and excluded in the digital sphere.”
Another finding of the study: there is often a lack not only of in-house technology, but also of digital practice. While many workers have the opportunity to build up and expand digital skills through their job, digital work equipment hardly plays a role for workers affected by poverty. Two-thirds of those affected by poverty stated that they never used a laptop, smartphone or tablet for work, and more than half never had anything to do with digital applications or programs in their work either. “Participation in private life, but also professional prospects depend more and more on digital skills,” emphasizes Greta Schabram from the Joint Research Center. “So that nobody misses the connection here and everyone is taken along, there is an urgent need for appropriate qualification offers as well as educational and experimental spaces outside of work.”
In addition to the expansion of the necessary infrastructure, the Paritätische Wohlfahrtsverband calls for an increase in the standard rates for basic security to a needs-based, poverty-proof level that also takes ongoing consumption expenditure to ensure digital participation appropriately into account. The costs for the purchase of the necessary technical equipment are to be paid for separately as a one-off service. Social providers, as important contact points for vulnerable groups, can also make an indispensable contribution to digital participation with appropriate support by enabling access and promoting empowerment, emphasizes the association.
The short expertise “Poverty and Digital Participation” is based on data from the Socio-Economic Panel of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) and is available at www.paritaet.org to retrieve.
For May 4th and 5th, the Paritätische invites you under the motto “Poverty? Abolish it!” to an online action congress, which was prepared with various social organizations that work together with people affected by poverty and to which, among others, Federal Minister for Family Affairs Lisa Paus is expected. Details: www.aktionskongress.de
Press contact:
Gwendolyn Stilling, [email protected], Tel.: 030 24636-305
Original content from: Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband, transmitted by news aktuell
