Page 5 - IDEA Studie 8 2022 Chudoba

Study 8/2022 Poverty and Social Benefits in Socially Excluded Localities2 JUNE 2022 MIROSLAVA FEDERIČOVÁ, KLÁRA KALÍŠKOVÁ, LUCIE ZAPLETALOVÁ Summary • This study presents a unique analysis of the living conditions of individuals and households in socially excluded localities (SELs) in terms of their income and exposure to poverty, compared to the average population. Special attention is paid to the receipt of social benefits and their effectiveness in reducing poverty. The analysis is based on unique data from living conditions in a socially excluded localities survey (SEL-SILC), conducted in 2020 by the Agency for Social Inclusion of the Czech Ministry of Regional Development, and from data from the Living Conditions Survey (EU-SILC) conducted by the Czech Statistical Office in 2020. • On average, SEL households have more members than do average households, and their average age is lower, mainly due to the lesser share of pensioner households in SELs. The population of SELs also has a significantly lower level of education. The percentage of people living in SELs without a high school diploma is 85%, compared to 40% in the general population. Households located in SELs are up to 4 times more likely to experience unemployment and economic inactivity than are average households. • As a result of their overall significantly lower educational attainment and economic activity, the equivalised net market income of SEL households is about 33% lower than that of the general population. Large differences between the two populations persist even when pensions, social benefits, and other cash income are added to SEL employment income. For example, 10% of SEL households have zero disposable income, while there are no households with zero disposable income in the general population. 2 This study represents the authors’ own views and not the official position of the Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences nor the Charles University Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education (CERGE). The authors would like to thank Daniel Münich and Roman Matoušek for their valuable comments and advice for improving the study, and to a number of colleagues for helpful comments on working versions of the calculations and text. Any remaining errors are the authors’ own. This study was created within the project "Mapping the effects of the economic crisis and optimizing the systems of taxes, benefits, executions and insolvencies to mitigate its adverse effects" (No. TL04000332), which was co-financed by the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic. The study was also supported by the Czech Academy of Sciences as a part of Strategy AV21. 3