More than million seek poverty aid in Spain: charity

The number of impoverished people seeking aid from charity Caritas in Spain tripled between 2007 and 2011 and has topped a million, it said Thursday, reflecting the impact of the financial crisis.

The number of people who asked for aid from Caritas, which organises food handouts to the poor, rose from 370,000 in 2007, before the worst of the crisis erupted, to 1.01 million last year, Caritas said in a report.

Many people have lost their jobs — the unemployment rate is near 25 percent — and many have also come to the end of their unemployment benefits or had them reduced as part of the government’s emergency cuts, Caritas said.

Official figures show there are more than 1.7 million families in Spain in which all working-age members are out of work.

Between 2007 and 2011 Caritas said the biggest rise in demand was for food, clothing and housing.

“Next came other necessities such as health and legal costs,” its report said.

Half of those who received aid from Caritas were immigrants, a third of whom were undocumented.