The second distortion is the change in the calculation methodology. This convenient “retouch” is supposedly done to get a more precise quantification of the income declared, comparing the data of the Treasury and / or Social Security. But not only are the data not comparable with those of CVD itself, but with the rest of the EU (which do not follow this criterion) .
Under the new methodology , people supposedly said “the truth” in the survey in 2009 (as it quite matched the “administrative records”), whereas differences start from 2011 onwards. (…).
The data that really count
We have to consider the other two components of the AROPE (At Risk of Poverty and Social Exclusion) indicator, which is used in the Europe 2020 Strategy to calculate increases or decreases in reducing poverty in Europe.
The first is the severe material deprivation , which increased from 5.8 to 6.2% between 2012 and 2013. Figures show that severe material deprivation worsen the results on several variables. 16.9% of households declare having “great difficulties” in making ends meet at the end of the month ( 3.4% more than last year ) , 41 % have no ability to handle unforeseen problems (41.4% in 2012). 9.3% have late payments related to housing ( 0.9% more than in 2012). The press release does not provide interesting data on other variables (yes they are in the database of the INE website ) such as reference to keep the home warm in the winter months , and protein intake twice a week , whereas these are an additional negative impact.
The last indicator, which measures the low employment intensity of households , is also negative , affecting 16.5 % in 2013 , compared to 2012, when it was 14.3 %.As a result of these three indicators, the Arope , which is of most interest to note , worsening over the previous year, even with the data at low relative poverty . Go from 26.7 % in 2011 to 27.2 % in 2012 and 27.3 % in 2013.
