Low education and children raise poverty risk
Having children and a low level of education has a negative effect on household finances, a survey from the Federal Statistics Office reveals.
The survey found that a quarter of people raising children did not have the means to cover extraordinary expenses of SFr2,000 ($2,122) in 2010.
The “Statistics on income and living conditions” survey also found that 14.2 per cent of Switzerland’s population was at risk of slipping below the poverty line. Of those, single-parent families, people who have not completed higher education and the elderly were most at risk of falling into poverty.
The survey found that the risk of poverty increased in line with the number of children in a household. For example, 7.1 per cent of couples without a child were at risk compared with a 21.4 per cent risk for couples who had three or more children.
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