Definition: a person is severely materially and socially deprived if she or he cannot afford 7 of 13 material possessions or social actions for financial reasons. These material possessions or social actions are being able to make payments on time, taking a week's holiday away from home every year, eating meat, chicken or fish at least once every two days, having an unexpected expense, being able to afford one's own car, heating the home properly, replacing damaged or worn-out furniture, replacing worn-out clothing with new clothing, having two pairs of shoes in good condition (one of which must be a closed pair), having access to Internet at home, meeting friends or family for a meal or a drink at least once a month, regularly participating in leisure activities such as sports, films, concerts, etc. and finally spending a sum of money each week for personal needs (Federal Public Service Social Security, 2018; Statistical Commission, 2018). and finally spend a weekly amount for personal needs (Federal Public Service Social Security, 2018; Statbel, 2021b; European Commission, 2022a).

Persons living in a household in a situation of severe material and social deprivation are part of the target group of persons at risk of poverty or social exclusion. The indicator replaces the indicator 'severe material deprivation' adopted under the Europe 2020 strategy. The list of material possessions or social actions of the indicator 'material and social deprivation' has been updated compared to its predecessor. A person is in a situation of severe material deprivation if his household is affected by at least four of the following nine items: not being able to afford unexpected expenses, a meal with proteins every other day, heating their home adequately (for a financial reason), one week annual holiday away from home, a car, a TV set, a phone, a washing machine (if they want it), and finally having arrears in the repayment of the mortgage loan or in the payment of the rent or utility bills.

The general evolution of both indicators for Belgium and the EU is commented below. For the indicator used in the framework of the Europe 2020 strategy, namely persons with severe material deprivation, the specific indication '(EU 2020)' is still referred to in order to avoid misunderstandings. For the indicator used after the Europe 2020 strategy under the Action Plan for the European Pillar of Social Rights (European Commission, 2021), there is no specific designation and simply the name is given: severe material and social deprivation'. For this indicator, data are available from 2015 at the earliest and the data for Belgium are also used to explain the evolution by region and for different population categories.

Material deprivation data presented here are based on the EU survey Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC). People participating in this survey may indicate whether they are facing aforementioned problems or not at the moment of the survey. Statistics Belgium organises this EU-harmonised survey in Belgium and makes the results available, in particular to Eurostat. The data used here come from Eurostat, which publishes detailed and comparable results between EU Member States. Since these data are based on surveys, a margin of uncertainty must be taken into account. This margin of uncertainty increases as the indicator is calculated on smaller sub-populations. The confidence intervals for these data are available on request from Statistics Belgium.

In 2005, there was a methodological change in the SILC survey on the item "not being able to heat his house adequately (for financial reasons)". The place of the same item in the questionnaire also changed in 2008. For these reasons, it seems appropriate to consider the evolution of this indicator mainly from 2008 and not earlier.

From 2019 onwards, the survey methodology has been thoroughly reviewed for better accuracy. In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic impacted data collection. This makes it difficult to compare the results of SILC 2020 with those of previous years. (Statbel, 2021a). Therefore, they are not used to calculate and evaluate the long-term trend. It should also be noted that due to the widespread use of temporary unemployment during the Covid-19 pandemic, the category 'unemployed' in SILC 2021 includes not only the long-term unemployed, but also persons who have been temporarily unemployed for more than 6 months and who are generally living in less precarious conditions (Statbel, 2022).

Goal: the proportion of people in a situation of severe material deprivation, and their number, must decrease.

The Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs adopted by the UN in 2015 include the following targets: “Ensure equal opportunity and reduce inequalities of outcome, including by eliminating discriminatory laws, policies and practices and promoting appropriate legislation, policies and action in this regard” (target 10.3) and: “By 2030, reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions” (target 1.2).

Persons living in a situation of severe material and social deprivation are part of the target group of persons at risk of poverty or social exclusion for which the action plan for the European pillar for social rights (European Council, 2021a, 2021b) sets a reduction target. In that framework, Belgium committed to reducing the number of persons at risk of poverty or social exclusion based on SILC 2019 data with 279,000 persons (including 93,000 children), to 1.982 million persons by 2030 (European Commission, 2022b; Federal Public Service Social Security, 2023).

Its predecessor 'severe material deprivation' was part of the target group of persons at risk of poverty or social exclusion defined in the Europe 2020 Strategy (European Commission, 2010).

International comparison: the share of people in severe material and social deprivation decreased in the EU27 from 9.7% in 2015 to 6.7% in 2022. When Member States are divided into three groups, Belgium is part of the group with the poorest performance in 2022. In that year, Slovenia ranked first with 1.4% and Romania last with 24.3%.

Between 2010 and 2012, the share of people in severe material deprivation (EU 2020) increased in the EU27 from 8.9% to 10.2%. Then it decreased to 5.9% in 2020. When Member States are divided into three groups, Belgium is part of the group with average performance and outperforms the European average in 2019. In that year, Luxemburg ranked first with 1.7% and Bulgaria last with 19.4%.

UN indicator: the selected indicator is related to indicator 1.2.2 – Proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions, since the population in a situation of severe material deprivation is part of the population at risk of poverty or social exclusion, an indicator corresponding to the national definition of multidimensional poverty.

Sources

• General

  • SDGs, Sustainable Development Goals: United Nations (2015), Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 25 September 2015, document A/RES/70/1.

  • Indicators: United Nations (2017), Work of the Statistical Commission pertaining to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 6 July 2017, document A/RES/71/313.

  • UN Sustainable Development: https://sdgs.un.org/ (consulted on 18/01/2023).

  • UN Sustainable Development Goal indicators website: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/ (consulted on 18/01/2023).

• Specific

  • European Commission (2022a), Severe Material and Social Deprivation, https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=818&langId=en&id=198 (consulted on 18/01/2022)

  • European Commission (2022b), The European Pillar of Social Rights: state of play on the national target for 2030, https://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=89&furtherNews=yes&newsId=10299 (consulted on 02/05/2023).

  • European Council (2021a), Conclusions – 24 and 25 June 2021, EUCO 7/21, https://www.consilium.europa.eu/media/50763/2425-06-21-euco-conclusions-en.pdf (consulted on 28/10/2021)

  • European Council (2021b), Porto Social Summit, 7 May 2021, https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/meetings/european-council/2021/05/07/social-summit/ (consulted on 28/10/2021)

  • Federal Public Service Social Security (2018), The evolution of the social situation and social protection in Belgium 2018 – ‘Increasing pressure on social protection adequacy’- Monitoring the social situation in Belgium and the progress towards the social objectives and the priorities of the National Reform Programme, Brussels, Federal Public Service Social Security, eptember 2018, https://socialsecurity.belgium.be/sites/default/files/content/docs/en/publications/silc/silc-analysis-social-situation-and-protection-belgium-2018-en.pdf (consulted on 24/09/2020).

  • Federal Public Service Social Security (2023), The evolution of the social situation and social protection in Belgium 2021, https://socialsecurity.belgium.be/sites/default/files/content/docs/en/publications/silc/silc-analysis-social-situation-and-protection-belgium-2021-en.pdf (consulted on 02/05/2023).

  • Statbel (2021a), SILC FAQ, https ://statbel.fgov.be/fr/themes/menages/pauvrete-et-conditions-de-vie/faq, see in particular « Y a-t-il des ruptures de séries dans la chronologie de l’enquête SILC ? » (consulted on 19/11/2021)

  • Statbel (2021b), Material and social deprivation, https://statbel.fgov.be/en/themes/households/poverty-and-living-conditions/material-and-social-deprivation (consulted on 15/06/2022).

  • Statbel (2022), Risk of poverty or social exclusion – Indicators-SILC 2019-2021, https://statbel.fgov.be/en/themes/households/poverty-and-living-conditions/risk-poverty-or-social-exclusion#figures (consulted on 15/06/2022).

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