According to figures published in the annual survey of poverty in Belgium, the Poverty Yearbook, the risk of ending up in poverty here decreased in 2021. Last year 1 in 8 Belgians were living in a family who income was below the poverty line. However, the number of families here that are struggling to make ends meet is probably much larger.
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1 in 8 Belgians living in poverty
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In Belgium, 12.7% of the population live in a family whose income is below the poverty line. There highest percentage of people living in poverty is to be found in Brussels-Capital Region. There, 25.4% of people live in poverty. This compares to 7% in Flanders and 17.3% in Wallonia. The Poverty Yearbook is published by the Academic Foundation for Poverty Reduction. The figures contained in the report for 2021 show that the risk of ending up in poverty decreased in 2021. However, this is because poverty is determined by average incomes.
If incomes increase then the level below which a person or family is considered to be in poverty also rises. However, during the corona crisis incomes fell with large numbers of people being laid off and on temporary unemployment for at least some of the time. The benefits paid out by the state to top up income lost by those that were laid off meant that average incomes remained more or less stable. The poverty threshold for a single person is currently 15,513 euro/annum. This equates to an income of approximately 1,293 euro/month. In the case of a household consisting of two adults and a child the threshold is 2,715 euro/month.
Certain groups such as single people, single-parent families and people in rented accommodation have a higher risk of being in poverty. This is also the case among people who do not (or cannot) work, low-skilled workers and people resident in Belgium who were born outside the European Union.
The poverty threshold in Belgium is defined according to criteria agreed at an EU-wide level. Those with incomes that are just a few euro higher are not considered to be in poverty. This means that in fact 22.4% of all people in Belgium are in fact living in households that are either in poverty or struggling to make ends meet.
The poverty threshold is determined by disposable income (net wages, benefits,…). Debts such as a loan or assets such as a savings account, bonds or shares are not taken into consideration. The coordinator of the group that compiles the Yearbook Jill Coenen says that it might be interesting to take debts and assets into account.
"This would give you an insight into a group that does not appear in the poverty statistics, but at the same time has little savings to fall back on. If you don't have any savings to fall back on there is a good chance that if there's a crisis like now your financial reserves will be quickly exhausted and then you'll have nothing to fall back on."
Focus on migration
The central theme of the 2021 Poverty Yearbook is migration. "We see that one in three people in Belgium that were born outside the European Union live in poverty. This is partly due to the unequal opportunities in education and on the labour market and also to discrimination in many areas of our society."
"We also see that many immigrants do not dare to ask the local social services for help because they are afraid that they will lose their right of residence.
Those who come to Belgium from outside the EU as a immigrant have to be able to demonstrate that they can support themselves. However, those regulations are not clear and should be amended."