Public expenditure incurred to correct the consequences of childhood poverty throughout a person life is significantly higher than the necessary investments to improve their life chances by supporting them during childhood.

Preventing the transmission of disadvantage across generations is a crucial investment in Europe future.

Challenges

People who grew up in poverty are more likely to suffer from unemployment and health problems, and are less likely to develop to their full potential later in life.

Poverty and social exclusion are transmitted to their children, creating a vicious intergenerational cycle of disadvantage.

Providing children who live in families at risk of poverty or social exclusion with access to quality services is key to break this cycle.

Thanks to the economic recovery, child poverty in Europe declined before the Covid-19 pandemic, but it is still unacceptably high. About one in four children in the EU are at risk of poverty or social exclusion.

Policy response

Several principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights are relevant for breaking the cycle of disadvantage.

In particular, Principle 1 states that everyone has the right to quality and inclusive education, training and life-long learning.

Principle 3 states that equal opportunities of under-represented groups shall be fostered, and Principle 11 says that children have the right to:

• affordable early childhood education and care of good quality,
• protection from poverty, and
• specific measures to enhance equal opportunities for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

In addition, Principle 16 confirms that everyone has the right to timely access to affordable, preventive and curative health care of good quality, and Principle 19 states that access to social housing or housing assistance of good quality shall be provided for those in need.

Building on the above principles, and as announced in the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan and in the EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child, the Council established in 2021 a European Child Guarantee. The European Child Guarantee falls within a broader set of integrated measures, as outlined in the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan.

In 2013, as part of the Social Investment Package, the Commission issued the Recommendation on Investing in children: breaking the cycle of disadvantage. The main focus of the recommendation is put on:

• improving children access to adequate resources,
• providing children with access to affordable quality services, , and
• recognising children right to participate.

Visit our webpage for more information about the Recommendation.