Greek Poverty

A third of Greeks live close to the poverty line or under, a new survey has found. The poverty limit is drawn at an income of 470 euros a month per adult. The survey says that slowly but steadily a 'third world' is being created inside Greece, an EU member state with a population of 11 million.

According to the General Union of Workers in Greece , there are 832,456 poor households in the country, which adds up to 2,088,000 persons .

Besides, over the last ten years many Greek families have fallen into a new kind of poverty, developing dependency on easy credit from an aggressive banking system.

"Five hundred thousand households pay more than half their income to cover their debt,"

Many other families with relatively large income, and thus far above the official poverty limit, pay huge amounts for covering their debt. The report says this puts them in extreme financial difficulties and close to net poverty even though they are not officially considered poor.
60 percent of Greeks live with the fear that they might one day fall under the poverty limit and become dependent on a problematic welfare system.