Reference budgets

The reference budgets for Flanders, Brussels and Wallonia are based on the "Theory of Human Needs" by Doyal & Gough (1991). This framework states that full social participation is only possible when people are healthy and have sufficient independence to act autonomously. At a minimum, people must have access to food, clothing, shelter, health and personal care, rest and recreation. In addition, children must be able to grow up safely and citizens must be able to maintain social relationships, feel safe and have sufficient mobility.

For each of these needs, reference budgets develop a basket of priced goods and services. The choice of goods and services to be included in each basket is based on (inter)national guidelines and scientific evidence. In the absence of objective criteria, experts are consulted and focus groups are organised with citizens from different socio-economic backgrounds.

Since 2023, we have been pricing the various goods and services twice a year. Every five years we update the goods and services. We do this based on new knowledge, trends and social guidelines. The revised reference budgets are repeatedly discussed in focus groups during this five-yearly update.

Reference budgets can also be used to monitor poverty reduction policies at the local, regional, national and European levels. For example, we have developed indicators to evaluate the effectiveness of minimum income schemes and to measure the affordability of goods and services. We also explored the possibility of developing a reference budget-based indicator to measure poverty in a population. The special feature of these indicators is that they are based on the needs of families and the necessary costs faced by households in different life situations.