Poverty Caritas warns of a difficult year for the poor and calls for action
Caritas warns of poverty in the new year. According to the charity, the burden on poorer households in Switzerland will continue to increase in 2026. There is a need for action - households affected by poverty should urgently be given greater relief.
08.01.2026, 10:15
SDA
This should be done, for example, by expanding existing measures such as premium reductions, it said at a media conference held by the aid organization in Bern on Thursday.
There are seven reasons for the deterioration in 2026: Rising living costs and health insurance premiums, rising house prices, stagnating wages with rising expenditure, insufficient social welfare, a lack of support for families, relief for the rich and a burden on the poor due to tax cuts and the increase in VAT.
Chronic poverty problem
According to Caritas, society is drifting further apart. For years, Switzerland has not been able to reduce poverty, as the recently published first national poverty monitoring by the federal government shows. The problem of poverty in Switzerland has become chronic.
Society is faced with the task of ensuring more equal opportunities and more equality. It is unacceptable that 16 percent of the population, including many families and children, are confronted with severely limited prospects and daily worries about securing their livelihood.
The increase in inequality should be prevented. "Higher wealth or inheritance taxes would be possible," said the press release on the occasion.
On Thursday, Caritas also launched the web platform "Poverty in Switzerland", which aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the poverty situation in Switzerland in an easy-to-understand format. To mark the start of the 125th anniversary of Caritas Switzerland, the new platform should help to ensure that knowledge about poverty is widely accessible, it said.
According to the Federal Statistical Office, around eight percent of the Swiss population is affected by poverty. Twice as many people are at risk of poverty. They live in a household whose disposable income is not sufficient to cover the social minimum subsistence level.
