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Title
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Reducing out-of-pocket costs to improve the adequacy of minimum income protection. Reference budgets as an EU policy indicator : the Belgian case
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Author
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Abstract
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| The right to adequate minimum income protection is one of the key principles included in the EuropeanPillar of Social Rights (EPSR). The EPSR takes a right-based and normative approach, aiming specifically at fulfilling people’s essential needs, not only by guaranteeing sufficiently high income levels, but also by promoting labour market inclusion and access to affordable goods and services of good quality. This paper takes the EPSR as a starting point to propose a needs-basedindicator that assesses the adequacy of minimum income protection including these three dimensionsin a comprehensive way. We argue that Reference Budgets(RBs), priced baskets of goods and services that represent an adequate living standard,are well-suitedto construct such an indicator. To illustrate this empirically, we use RBsfor adequate social participation in Belgiumwhich have been constructed for the first time in 2008 and have been regularly updated since then. Through a combination of hypothetical household simulations of essential out-of-pocket costs and designated tax-benefits for families living on different minimum income schemes, we are able to assess the adequacy of minimum income protection for a range of household typesover the period 2008-2017. The paper shows that, the proposedindicator is auseful policy tool for both ex-anteand ex-postevaluationsof the adequacy of social policymeasuresin light of the social protection and inclusion rightsincluded in the Pillar.Starting from a framework of what it means to live a life in human dignity, RBs revealhow adequacyof minimum incomesand incentives to work not only dependon the level of social benefits and minimum wages but also on the costs people need to make to accessessential goods and services. |
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Language
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English
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Source (series)
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CSB working paper ; 19.06
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Publication
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Antwerpen
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Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy
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2019
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Volume/pages
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21 p.
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Full text (open access)
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