Definition: the share of the population at risk of poverty is the ratio of the number of persons with a net equivalised disposable income below 60% of the national median, to the total population. Net disposable income is equal to the sum of the gross incomes of all household members less taxes, social security contributions and transfers between households (EC, 2016). In order to obtain the net equivalised disposable income, the net disposable income is divided by an equivalence factor (the so-called 'modified OECD' equivalence scale). An adult has a factor of 1, each additional person from the age of 14 a factor of 0.5 and each additional person under the age of 14 a factor of 0.3. The net equivalised disposable income makes it possible to compare the standard of living of people, taking into account the economies of scale resulting from a joint household and the composition of the household. It is assumed that the standard of living of persons with a net equivalised disposable income below 60% of the national median in the total population is insufficient to meet the minimum acceptable living patterns in Belgium. People at risk of poverty are part of the target group of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion.

The data used here on the people at risk of poverty are based on the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) survey, with income data that relate to the year preceding the survey year. This means, for example, for the survey year 2020 that in the calculation of this indicator the incomes of 2019 were used, which were not affected by the Covid-19 crisis (Statbel, 2021a).

Statbel organises this EU-harmonised survey in Belgium and makes the results available, in particular to Eurostat. 2004 is the first year for which European harmonised data have been collected in order to calculate the indicator. The data used here come from Eurostat, which publishes detailed and comparable results between EU Member States. Since these data are based on a survey, a margin of uncertainty has to be taken into account. This margin of uncertainty increases as the indicator is calculated on smaller sub-populations. The confidence intervals are available on request from Statbel.

From 2019 onwards, the methodology of the survey has been thoroughly revised for better accuracy. Therefore, the data collected until 2018 are not comparable with those collected from 2019 onwards. 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, 2021b). 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 of '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 share and the number of persons at risk of poverty must be reduced.

The Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs adopted by the UN in 2015 include target 10.2: “By 2030, enable and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all regardless of age, gender, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion, economic or other status”.

In addition to target 10.2, the SDGs contain the following targets: “Ensure equal opportunity and reduce inequalities of outcome, including through eliminating discriminatory laws, policies and practices and promoting appropriate legislation, policies and actions in this regard” (target 10.3); “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) and “By 2030, progressively achieve and sustain income growth of the bottom 40 per cent of the population at a rate higher than the national average (target 10.1).

People at risk of poverty are part of the target group for which the Europe 2020 strategy (European Commission, 2010) has set a reduction target, the so-called people at risk of poverty or social exclusion. In the context of the action plan for the European pillar for social rights,, a new goal was adopted for the last target group which still includes persons at risk of poverty: a reduction in the number of persons at risk of poverty or social exclusion in the EU by at least 15 million by 2030, including 5 million children, was proposed. The population at risk of poverty is a part of that target group (European Council, 2021a, 2021b). 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, 2022; Federal Public Service Social Security, 2023).

Here the starting point is that the standard of living of people at risk of poverty is insufficient to meet the minimum acceptable living patterns in Belgium. The Federal Long-Term Strategic Vision has set the following ambition for 2050, which goes beyond the SDGs: “Everyone will have an income from work, from property or from social protection systems and will have access to services of general interest. In this way, everyone will be able to meet all the needs for a decent life during all phases of his life” (objective 2, Belgian Official Gazette, 08/10/2013).

International comparison: between 2010 and 2016, the risk of poverty in the EU27 increased from 16.5% to 17.5%. Thereafter, the indicator fluctuated around 16.7%. In 2022, it was 16.5%.The average for Belgium in that period is 1.9 percentage points lower than that of the EU27. When Member States are divided into three groups, Belgium is part of the group with the best performances in 2022. In that year, the Czechia ranked first with 10.2% and Bulgaria last with 22.9%.

UN indicator: the selected indicator corresponds to indicator 10.2.1 - Proportion of people living below 50 per cent of median income, by age, sex and persons with disabilities. The UN uses 50% as the income threshold, while the indicator selected here assumes 60%, as in the EU definition.

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

  • Belgian Official Gazette: http://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/cgi/welcome.pl; research on http://www.ejustice.just.fgov.be/doc/rech_f.htm (consulted on 24/09/2020).

  • EC (2016), Methodological guidelines and description of EU-SILC - Target Variables -015 operation (Version August 2016), DocSILC065 (2015 operation).

  • European commission (2010), Europe 2020. A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:52010DC2020&from=EN (consulted on 24/09/2020).

  • European Commission (2022), 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 (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), Chiffres clés 2021, p. 31, https://statbel.fgov.be/fr/nouvelles/chiffres-cles-2021 (consulted on 10/12/2021)

  • Statbel (2021b), 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 (2022), Risk of poverty or social exclusion - SILC-indicators 2019-2021, https://statbel.fgov.be/sites/default/files/files/documents/Huishoudens/10.7%20Inkomen%20en%20levensomstandigheden/10.7.1%20Armoederisico/Publication_Silc_STATBEL_ENG.xlsx (consulted on 15/06/2022).

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