Inflation puts enormous pressure on families in Austria. Parents with two children now have to spend more than a thousand euros per month on sufficient and healthy food. The total monthly costs – even without a car – with two children aged 7 and 14 are 4,433 euros for couples and 3,704 euros for single parents.
Compared to 2023, monthly costs have increased by several hundred euros, according to the reference budgets of the debt advice centers published on Monday. The reference budget for a household with one parent and two children is 300 euros more than last year.
Heating prices in particular have risen sharply, by 53 percent. Food became more expensive by 11 percent and expenditure on social and cultural participation by 10 percent. Rental costs have also risen considerably, by 8 percent.
Food is no longer affordable for many
“The increase in the cost of living is alarming,” says Johanna Steurer, project manager for reference budgets at ASB Schuldnerberatungen GmbH, the umbrella organization of state-recognized debt advice in Austria. More and more people can no longer sustain themselves financially. This is also evident from new figures on over-indebtedness, “where high costs of living are becoming increasingly important as a reason for over-indebtedness,” says Steurer. Food is no longer affordable for many.
What is needed for a simple but good life
The reference budgets for debt assistance are calculated annually and show how much money is needed to offer different types of households a reasonable life with a minimum of social and cultural participation. According to ASB, these are the only studies in Austria that calculate how much is needed for a simple but good life.
For the first time, reference budgets also exist for couple households with four children and single-parent families with three and four children. Households with only one parent and families with three or more children are particularly affected by poverty.
The reference budget does not take regional differences into account and is based on a rental apartment. The costs of a car are also not included in the reference budgets. According to ASB, the average total monthly costs for a car would be just under 900 euros.
Changes to the poverty measure are required
The debt assistance service advocates that the reference budgets are used in addition to the poverty risk line as an official poverty measure and are also taken into account when determining the subsistence minimum. The calculation of the at-risk-of-poverty threshold is based on two-year-old income data (EU-SILC). According to the official definition, anyone who has to live on less than 60 percent of the median income of the entire population is at risk of poverty. For single parents with two children and monthly household costs of 3,704 euros according to the reference budget, the at-risk-of-poverty limit is 2,830 euros, which is 874 euros lower than the ASB reference budget.
Source: Krone
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