According to a newspaper report, more than one million children depend on state support for school supplies. Recently, exactly 1,006,163 students received this benefit after the education and participation package. That was more than 5000 children more than a year earlier, as the "Passauer Neue Presse" reports. The newspaper refers to a response from the federal government to a request from the left in the Bundestag.

The performance for the school supplies is for children from Hartz IV households a flat rate of 100 € per year. 70 euros will be paid at the start of the school year, including the beginning of the 2018/2019 school year, and another 30 euros at the beginning of the second semester, ie in February. The numbers of students in the report are from February 2018, the figures for August are not yet available according to the newspaper.

In terms of the number of beneficiaries, North Rhine-Westphalia is at the top with 300,000 schoolchildren. In Lower Saxony there were 117,000, in Berlin 98,000, in Baden-Württemberg 89,000 and in Bavaria 80,000 pupils.

Left-educational politician: "One hundred euros are not enough"

"A total of one hundred euros for school supplies per year are not enough to cover the costs incurred," criticized the leftist politician Sabine Zimmermann in the "PNP". She called for the lump sum fixed ten years ago to be increased. Equal opportunities for children from poorer families could be "under current law," said Zimmermann.

The education and participation package was introduced in 2011 under the then Labor Minister Ursula von der Leyen (CDU). It provides for a grant for families who already receive social assistance, living or unemployment benefits. However, subsidies for school meals, tuition, music lessons or club sports are only used by more than a quarter of the beneficiaries.

According to the Federal Employment Agency, almost two million children and adolescents under the age of 18 live in Hartz IV households, which is almost 15 percent. More than every fifth child lives with parents who earn less than 60 percent of the median income of all households.

As it is, when families can not afford the money for school trips, theater classes, books or pens, seven people have told the SPIEGEL in impressive words.

Video on child poverty: Hungry for school

Video

MIRROR TV