According to new figures from the economic council for labour movement, Arbejderbevægelsens Erhvervsråd (AE), the number of people living in poverty in Denmark has more than doubled over the past decade or so.

The figures showed that over 44,000 people were considered to be living in poverty in Denmark in 2015 – up significantly from the 18,650 living below the poverty line in 2002.

READ MORE: Government scraps official national poverty line

Benefits slashed
AE expert Jonas Schytz Juul contends that the development is largely down to the lower benefits that the unemployed and foreigners began receiving during the last decade. Particularly young people have been impacted by the lower benefits.

“There is a group of young people who don’t get going with an education, and that group has increased among the poor,” Juul told Information newspaper.

Denmark’s official poverty line was repealed in 2015 by the Venstre government, but AE continues to make annual calculations based on the previous poverty line.

Using that standard, a person is considered poor if they have earned less than 50 percent of the median income level for three consecutive years, is not a student and has savings of less than 100,000 kroner.