Cáritas warns of an increase in poverty, especially among young people: Spain grows without closing the social gap

The latest x-ray from the FOESSA Foundation and promoted by Cáritas depicts a Spain that is growing economically, but does not integrate people at the same rate. The IX Report on exclusion and social development confirms that inequality has become more persistent among young people and vulnerable households, and that digitalization, far from being an automatic equalizer, opens new gaps.

Housing emerges as the great bottleneck; Job insecurity becomes chronic in the early stages of adult life; and the energy bill aggravates the fragility of households with fewer resources. The warning is unmistakable: growth alone does not correct these cracks. “Economic growth, by itself, does not correct inequality or its consequences, it can even aggravate them,” summarizes the report in the mouth of one of its authors, Raúl Flores, who calls for “a new social pact” to combat the structural causes and not just their symptoms.

Poorer youth and at risk of social exclusion

The generational thermometer is eloquent. In 2024, around 2.5 million young people were in a situation of exclusion, 1.2 million of them in its severe version. There are 309,000 more than before the pandemic, and 160,000 more in severe exclusion, despite the fact that there are 2.4 million fewer young people than in 2007 due to demographic aging and the drop in birth rates. The deterioration is not temporary, since FOESSA portrays “paths marked by exclusion” over time, not just specific impacts of the crisis.

The educational-work transition continues to be a funnel. Almost half of young people without ESO (48.6%) do not study or work, a percentage that drops to 26.8% if they complete compulsory education. The incidence skyrockets among youth of foreign nationality (31.8%) and gypsy youth (61.5%); also among those who live in homes with severe exclusion (51.4%). These are percentages that confirm the weight of social origin and the home context in the destiny of young people.

FOESSA links these trajectories with the labor market and with a qualification system that forces people to combine employment and training for more and more time, since 18.2% of young people between 26 and 34 years old do so, that is, almost 1 in 5 young people. This is the result of a postgraduate specialization that improves employability, but creates new barriers due to the associated economic costs.

Access to housing, another of those responsible

Added to this labor bottleneck is the housing wall, today the main citizen concern along with politics, according to the social trust chapter of the report. FOESSA recalls that, if housing had been approached as a right and not as an exchange good, Spain “could have taken a much higher leap in integration and social cohesion.”

The survey also shows that access to property and prices configure a vector of inequality between those who have and those who do not have a home, and that ownership is closely related to the risk of exclusion.

Added to this is energy poverty, which has also worsened sharply, and not only in Spain. Between 2019 and 2023, households that could not keep their homes warm in winter almost tripled in our country (from 7.6% to 20.7%). The blow is even greater among households under the poverty rate (AROP): from 19.6% to 34.3%. It is a jump of 75% in four years, well above the 22% rise in the EU-27.

The digital divide adds a less visible layer of exclusion. It is true that digitalization is advancing (99.5% of homes have a mobile phone and 96.8% have internet access), but FOESSA explains that the availability of appropriate devices and skills follow a social gradient.

For example, the presence of computers jumps from 66.4% to 94.5% among households with less than 1,200 euros and with 3,900 or more per month, respectively. And in severe exclusion, 41.2% of homes do not even have internet. The conclusion of the report is clear and explains that without alternative in-person channels, digitalization can become a blackout of rights.

Single-parent households and those with disabilities, the most vulnerable

The profile of the most exposed households strengthens the idea that there is not a single crisis, but rather an “overlapping of vulnerabilities.” According to the FOESSA report, it shows an increase in severe exclusion in homes with minors, young people, single parents and people with disabilities. In the case of single parents, severe exclusion has worsened to triple the 2007 levels.

The social response is also tense on a daily basis. Although some spending adjustment indicators improve compared to the peaks of the pandemic, the most excluded households have weakened their social capital (the networks they can turn to in case of need) and continue to resort to a greater extent to cuts in supplies, debt renegotiation or family help to make ends meet.

What are the biggest problems?

The report indicates that housing (16.3%) leads the problems cited by citizens and that politicians and politics occupy prominent positions in the ranking of concerns. Among young people, eight out of ten feel neglected by the State and three out of four believe that they will live worse than their parents, according to surveys cited by FOESSA.

Now, how can we end it, or rather reduce it? Well, FOESSA proposes to attack inequality at its roots, with a special focus on education and second chances. It calls for networks of inclusive schools, continuous evaluation and stabilization of programs that reengage young people disengaged from study and employment. The objective is to break the intergenerational reproduction of poverty: without an educational firewall, he warns, exclusion tends to be inherited.

The triangle of essential services (energy, water, connectivity) also requires effective guarantees of access and measures that look beyond the emergency. Among the recommendations they ask to review the design of the electric social bonus so that it reaches those who need it most, reinforce the payment capacity of vulnerable households and avoid setbacks in heating and connection that separate them from basic rights.

The more than 700-page report can be check this link. FOESSA’s story coincides with the thesis that opened this piece, in which relief policies (minimum income, partial benefits) are necessary to cushion blows, but insufficient if they are not integrated into a fundamental strategy. Flores’ diagnosis “we need a new social pact that questions assumed consensuses such as meritocracy or unlimited growth” is not a slogan but the political translation of the data: without reviewing the architecture of opportunities (school, employment, housing and services), the economy will continue to advance with groups left out in the open.