The Impact of Social Transfers on Income Poverty and Material Deprivation

In 2010, European Union (EU) Heads of State and Government launched the Europe 2020 strategy and committed to lifting at least 20 million people out of poverty and social exclusion, i.e. from around 116.5 million (based on 2008 EU-SILC figures) down to 96.5. The EU social inclusion target is based on a combination of three indicators: income poverty (also referred to as ‘poverty risk’ or ‘relative poverty’), severe material deprivation and (quasi-)joblessness. According to the 2013 EU-SILC data (the most recent available data when drafting this chapter), the number of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion is now 121.6 million people; this a jump of more than five million people since the adoption of the EU target which mainly results from the great recession and subsequent austerity policies implemented by EU Member States. The three indicators combined in the EU social inclusion target are part of a larger set of commonly agreed EU social indicators, which are used by the European Commission and Member States to monitor progress in the social field (...)