This research note offers several complementary views that go beyond income poverty, using the most recent (2020) EU Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) data, a survey that provides official poverty statistics in the EU. The study first estimates subjective poverty (SP), which builds on income, but that describes income as it is reported by households themselves: the necessary minimum monthly amount they require to make ends meet and to cover regular necessary expenses. Therefore, the measurement of SP will reflect people’s own perceptions of their needs and actual situations, rather than an externally set ‘sufficient’ income threshold.

Second, given the unique opportunity of the EU-SILC 2020 module to engage with ‘[o]ver-indebted-ness, consumption and wealth’, the study compares household indebtedness across EU Member States and assesses factors related to households’ over-indebtedness, either based on their self-re-ported degree of financial strain, or on the amount of their loan payments where such payments con-sume relatively high shares of their incomes.
Third, the study turns to overall populations and examines regular household expenses. Relative to their incomes, it looks at how households cope with housing costs and, more importantly, how addi-tional regular expenses such as loan payments and necessary expenditure on food and transport affect the household’s ‘disposable’ income that remains for consumption of ‘unnecessary’ goods and ser-vices, which signals the degree to which a household is able to participate in the society. It assesses factors related to ‘expense-overburden’ in EU countries. Finally, it contrasts income poverty rates with SP and expense-overburden rates. The purpose of this research note is to provide complementary views to the monetary dimensions of measuring poverty.

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