Fattigdom og overlevelsesstrategier

The reduction of social assistance benefits from 2002 to 2011 for those who were already among the worst off in Danish society meant that many people were unexpectedly thrown into deep poverty. Due to this new situation many individuals and families had to plan and develop strategies to deal with this sudden deprivation. In the research project "Consequences of having the lowest social assistance benefits as basis of existence", we focused on both the recipients' economic situation and deprivation and on how they acted and reacted to this new situation of economic scarcity, deprivation and unemployment. In this article we show that the poor were all exposed to the same type of structural pressure and were experiencing poverty and deprivation, but reflected on their unique situation and coped with it in different ways. We focus on coping strategies in relation to getting work, dealing with economy, deprivations in everyday life, and finally how parents tried to protect their children against the consequences of poverty in the family. We illustrate how poor individuals and families used both problem focused and emotional focused coping to deal with unemployment and deprivation. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]