The use of equalized household income
The use of equalized household income, runs the danger of underrepresenting the situation of women or dependent adults within the household, as assumptions are made that income is equally distributed within the household i.e. that each partner in the family has access to the same amount of money. Women’s generally lower income is often hidden, which is the more serious where they have the direct responsibility for the expenditure for children or other dependents.
Key groups at very high risk
Overall, national and European data on relative income poverty (the at risk-of-poverty line) do not identify some key groups at very high risk such as people living in institutions, homeless people and other difficult to-reach groups such as black and minority ethnic people or migrants and asylum seekers. Thus more focused research is needed on these groups.
At-risk-of-monetary rate versus reality
The at-risk-of-monetary-poverty rate is a relative measure of poverty based on the median threshold. This threshold varies over time and in a number of Member States it has fallen in recent years due to the economic crisis, because of the general drop in household incomes. As a result the at-risk-of-monetary-poverty rate may have remained stable or even reduced (e.g. in Bulgaria) whereas the living conditions of the most vulnerable have actually deteriorated appallingly. This has made it difficult to highlight the social consequences of the crisis and of the austerity cuts. No indicator taken in isolation can depict the social situation in a given country. Analysis should take on board the broad context and build on the expertise of people in poverty themselves and the NGOs working with them on the ground.
The real value of the poverty threshold
Comparing monetary poverty rates between countries can hide significant differences in the real standard of living unless the actual value of the poverty threshold is taken into account, within each country. That is, when you look at how much money somebody has to live on if they are on the poverty line in different countries (the at-risk-of-poverty threshold) the differences can be stark. For instance, in 2015 a single person on the poverty line in Romania lives on only € 1,469 a year, € 1,891 in Bulgaria, and between €2,861 and €3,819 in Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland and Croatia. On the contrary, he/she would earn €20,291 in Luxemburg and €17,199 in Denmark. (source: Eurostat – SILC Database, January 2018)
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