Household situation concerning arrears and outstanding amounts is a statistical indicator referring to the financial situation of a household with regard to its arrears in paying bills and repaying loans and credits.
The amount owed is recorded separately for each identified area. For outstanding amounts, the two following areas are recorded: bank overdrafts and credit and/or store card(s) not cleared. For arrears, the following three areas were recorded: housing bills/repayment, consumption loan/credit repayment and other non-housing bills.
Although the scale is not cumulative, it was possible to characterise the overall degree of household financial difficulties when aggregating different areas.
A situation is referred to as ‘critical’ when the amount owed in one area (or more, when combined) exceeds the household monthly disposable income. The amount of the mortgage itself is not taken into account, only the arrears related to the payment of the mortgage are included.