3 million Hungarians live from less than 400 EUR per month
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This is 1/3rd of the population of the country. These people represent the lower-income group of the society whose rate increased by 4.7 pc in only 10 years.
According to mfor.hu, the Hungarian government – like other Western, right-wing parties – regards the strengthening of the middle class as its top priority because they are the basis of the economy with their workforce, small and medium enterprises. Thus, the government talks about the necessity of a healthy and wide middle class; however, the cabinet’s measures help upper-middle-class people more than lower-middle class ones. For example, the Orbán-administration changed the progressive Hungarian tax system to a flat tax one.
Even though theoretically every working people benefited from the modification it can be stated that in practice,
lower income groups lost money.
This is because even though their tax was cut by 1 pc, the government abolished tax credit, as well, therefore, their final balance is negative. In contrast, in the pockets of higher income groups remained more money because their tax was halved.
Mfor.hu states that besides strengthening middle class the government should direct more money on supporting the catching-up of the lower income groups and provide them a chance to become part of the middle class. However, based on the statistics, their financial state is worsening and new research sheds light on the process of their pauperization.
OECD has recently published a study in which they state that between the mid-2000s and the mid-2010s,
only the rate of the lower social class increased in Hungary.