Adequate social protection for lower-income households in Belgium "cannot be underestimated", according to a new report by KU Leuven which highlights that employment alone is not enough to escape poverty.
A new report on Belgium's "low-middle class" builds on a previous analysis of the period from 1985 to 2016. This found that the share of people in poverty had increased and that working-age people with low incomes were particularly vulnerable.
The updated report paints a different picture: since 2018 the "low-middle class" and "core-middle class" have grown, and poverty has fallen. It defines poverty as households with a net income below 60% of the national median.
Today, 12.3% of the Belgian population is poor – down from 16.4% in 2017. The low-middle and core-middle categories have both grown (to 19.7% and 37.5% respectively). The richest segment has reduced (3.5% of Belgians today, down from 3.8% in 2017).
Poverty rates fall as living standards rise
Report author Professor Wim Van Lancker noted that the trend is "no longer towards polarisation but convergence" as the middle classes grow. Importantly, fewer people struggle to make ends meet than six years ago and more people count themselves as middle class.
The decline in poverty and growth in middle classes cannot be explained by socio-demographic changes in the Belgian population, says Van Lancker. But he noted that rising education levels and increasing diversity "have an impact on income distribution".
Similarly employment – which continued to rise between 2018 and 2022 – cannot fully explain the decline in poverty. In Belgium, the employment rate rose from 69.7% in 2018 to 71.9% in 2022. However the report notes that one income (part-time or full-time) is not enough for households to climb out of poverty.
The report concludes that social protections provided by the State are essential to lifting people out of poverty. It observes a "notable increase in mobility out of poverty due to government transfers, and a notable decrease in those falling out of the low middle class after redistribution", between 2018 and 2022.
Social supports are highlighted as key to realising the benefits of greater employment and enabling social mobility.
The study was carried out in collaboration with Minerva (a think tank) and Millennium Goals, an umbrella group of 17 poverty organisations and social movements.
