Differentiation of the standard of living and the structure of poverty in the depressed region

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problems of assessing the poverty level of families in the Republic of Karelia, which currently has the highest share of the poor in the total income structure of the Northwestern Federal District of the Russian Federation. This circumstance dictates to the regional authorities a new social agenda aimed at combating poverty, for the successful implementation of which actual methodological approaches to measuring its real level are required. Using the accepted methodology for calculating poverty in comparison with one subsistence minimum, the authors defined this calculation as an estimate of material poverty. And they introduced an additional characteristic of poverty in comparison with the size of per capita income from one to two living wages and defined it as social poverty. The authors suggested that currently the poverty estimate associated with one living wage does not reflect the degree of the difficult financial situation of families and needs additional clarification. Socially poor families do not have the opportunity to meet the urgent needs related to the social development of the family. In the article, the authors used the concept of “socially unprotected families”, meaning both financially poor and socially poor families, that is, all those families whose per capita income is less than two subsistence minimum. When analyzing the level of poverty, the authors used indicators: the level of consumption, expenditure on food and a subjective assessment of the standard of living of the family. The performed analysis allowed the authors to assess and reveal the characteristics of poverty in the Republic of Karelia. The authors revealed that 67.2 % of families are socially unprotected, with 17.1 % of families being financially poor, 50.1 % socially poor. The presence of a second and subsequent children is a strong factor contributing to families falling below the poverty line: among families with two children, 81.4 % are socially unprotected, 32.0 % are financially poor, 49.4 % are socially poor. Among families with one child, the level of material poverty is two times lower and amounts to 14.9 %. The authors revealed the differentiation of real incomes of families. There is only enough money to buy food from 20.9 % of families. Among families with one child, 16.7 % are in this situation, among families with two or more children – 29.3 %. The article focuses on the low standard of living of the population of the Republic of Karelia associated with family spending on food: half of families spend more than 60 % of their family budget on food. The authors analyzed the subjective assessment of the standard of living of families in three positions: the pauper, the poor and people of average income and compared the results with the social protection of families. Among the families identifying themselves as “pauper”, the dominant family is materially poor, whose share is 81.3 %. Among those positioning themselves as “poor,” socially poor families dominate, their share being 62.0 %. In the group of families who consider themselves to be “people of average income”, more than half (50.2 %) are families with a per capita income exceeding two subsistence minimum. The results of the study showed that such a phenomenon as poverty is typical not only for families with a per capita income below one living wage (materially poor families), but also for families whose per capita income does not exceed two living wages (socially poor families). The authors' hypothesis about the social insecurity of not only materially poor, but also socially poor families was confirmed. In this regard, the authors consider it true to talk about the existence of such a phenomenon as social poverty. Families with per capita incomes from one to two living wages are not included in the attention of the state, although social assistance is extremely important for them, especially for families with minor children.