Summit against social inequality: “I couldn’t live cheaper”

There are not ten commandments, but ten quotes that are placed in front of the altar in the Holy Cross Church in Berlin-Kreuzberg this Thursday. One says: “I can only write letters to the authorities with sedatives.” On another: “I couldn’t live cheaper.”

There are ten statements from people who report how being poor affects their everyday life. It's about the worry of not being able to offer your children anything, about saving, about media stigmatization, the harassment from authorities or even the fear of making small mistakes - for example accidentally locking yourself out and then having to pay a locksmith.

A few dozen people read the quotes. They should stop at the statements that affect them. The activity is part of a panel titled: “When the private is political: everyday experiences of poverty.” The discussion is organized by the Joint Association, Diakonie and the National Poverty Conference as part of a “summit against social inequality” that is taking place over two days in Berlin.

A woman stops in front of a poster that asks the question: “Why am I even alive?” That touched her because she herself “didn’t have an easy life right from the start,” she says. But she wants to fight. “I’m tired of this helplessness, this blame from society.” Now that she's over 50, she can finally say: "It's structural violence."

Little by little a discussion about poverty emerges. One of the participants in the discussion, Monika Göring, says she knows poverty from her own experience. It is difficult to explain her situation to middle-class people, she says. She is often asked where she wants to go on vacation - but she can't afford it.

Many of the participants share their individual experiences. A man says that he currently doesn't receive any social benefits because he doesn't have an account. He goes collecting bottles. Another man complains that the perspectives of people in extreme poverty, such as the homeless, are underrepresented. There is also a demand to address the calculation of standard rates for basic security more clearly - these are systematically reduced.

Guests include Kai Marquardsen, who, as a professor at the University of Applied Sciences, deals with poverty and social inequality. From his research, he knows that those affected deal with poverty in very different ways. Some would fight, others would flee or freeze. It is important to maintain or restore the ability to act.

But that is exactly what is difficult when politics takes less and less account of the needs of poor people. The planned cuts in housing benefit, the tightening of basic security, the new care law – all of these cutting reforms will worsen the situation.

Achim Meyer auf der Heyde, chairman of the Joint Association, emphasized on Wednesday that it is important to involve people affected by poverty more closely. Those affected are often assumed to “have themselves to blame for their precarious situation”. Instead, what is needed is a “policy of effective poverty reduction: more support, more social and professional integration and better social security”.

The poverty summit in Berlin was a meeting place. In various panels and lectures, poor people were able to exchange ideas and network with people from politics, science and associations. According to the organizers, almost 400 people came together over the two days.