Poverty and Adequacy of Social Security in Europe: a Comparative Analysis

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Abstract
The aims of this collective research project in seven countries and regions in the EC, as regards content, were to establish in a comparative way the number of poor households in each country, to identity social groups at high risk of poverty, to assess the adequacy of social security in guaranteeing a minimum income (thus focusing on results, instead of on the means involved), and to distinguish between temporary and longer- term poverty by means of the panel method. The number of poor households varies from 10-40 per cent (more generous standard) or from 6-20 per cent (strictest standard). The number of long-term poor is much lower. Very few households are in absolute poverty. Important factors determining poverty are: unemployment, social status, age, whether single or not, and whether having only one income in the household (in Ireland and Greece also labour incomes that are too low). The impact of social security transfers on poverty is the strongest in the Benelux countries, least and in fact rather low in Catalonia and in Greece. This inadequacy can be explained by two factors: in many cases the amounts of benefits going to the poor are too low; and the redistributive effect of social security is horizontal rather than vertical, i.e. a large part of the benefits is not going to the bottom groups. From a methodological point of view, several poverty lines were tested. The so- called subjective standard is more realistic (also with regards to the equivalence scales) because it is based on the evaluation of a minimum income made by the population itself; but fluctuations complicate comparative analysis of countries over time. The so-called relative or statistical EC-standard is more appropriate for comparative purposes, but the level of the standard is arbitrarily defined (which is also true for the equivalence scale) and this method measures income-inequality rather than poverty. It is advisable to use the statistical method for the future comparative studies. Poverty-lines will always be based on a reasonable convention. grounded in a generous or restrictive notion of poverty.

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