Research note 3/2010
Financial exclusion in the EU
New evidence from the EU-SILC special module
Social Situation Observatory – Income distribution and living conditions
Applica (BE), European Centre for the European Centre for Social Welfare
Policy and Research (AT), ISER – University of Essex (UK) and Tárki (HU)
Nicole Fondeville, Erhan Őzdemir and Terry Ward
Applica
November 2010
This Research note was financed by and prepared for the use of the European
Commission, Directorate- General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities.
It does not necessarily reflect the opinion or position of the European Commission,
Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities. Neither the
Commission nor any person acting on its behalf is responsible for the use that might be
made of the information contained in this publication.
European Commission
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November 2010
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Introduction
There is a growing recognition across the EU that having access to a bank account and
the financial services that banks and other financial institutions provide, including credit
facilities, is, in many countries, a necessary condition for social inclusion. It is equally the
case that the countries in which this is so are tending to increase over time as their
financial systems become more developed. There is a question, however, as to how far
financial exclusion, in the sense of not being able to access or use ‘financial services in the
mainstream market that are appropriate to (people’s) needs and enable them to lead a
normal life in the society in which they belong’ (European Commission, 2008) is an
independent cause of social exclusion rather than a symptom of it. People who have
difficulty in obtaining a bank account or access to credit, therefore, tend to be those who
are out of work or who have particularly low levels of income, which are independent
causes of social exclusion. Moreover, as financial systems develop, it is in the interest of
banks and other similar institutions to offer their services to a widening proportion of the
population since this is the way in which they can expand their deposits and, accordingly,
their income and profits.
Competition between financial institutions should, therefore, ensure that everyone in
society who has need for financial services and who is able to pay for them – in the same
way as for other services or goods – should be able to access them. Consequently, while
inability to pay may be a cause of financial exclusion as well as social exclusion, the
former in itself would not in these circumstances be an independent cause of the latter,
though it would, of course, contribute to it and might well reinforce it, adding to the
difficulties of escaping from exclusion. The key issue here, however, is over the ability to
pay and how this is defined, or identified, by financial institutions as well as over the extent
of competition between institutions, which may not be sufficient to ensure that all sections
of the community are adequately served.
Financial services and, in particular, the provision of credit facilities, differ from most other
goods and services in that payment is not made at the time when they are provided but
only some time after. Institutions, therefore, need to assess whether or not the person, or
household, to whom credit is extended is able to meet the charges involved and
ultimately to repay. In the case of bank accounts, the issue is over whether or not the
amount deposited – and the return that banks are able to make on this through their
financial operations – and the charges levied are likely to cover the costs of managing the
account. If financial institutions take a conservative view over the ability to pay and
impose restrictive conditions on borrowers, and if lack of competition reinforces this by
normal banking services being withheld from those with who able to deposit only relatively
small amounts in their accounts, then it might well be the case that some of those who are
not socially excluded for other reasons are financially excluded. Being financially
excluded, moreover, carries a serious risk of social exclusion, since not having access to
banking and other financial services in many EU countries makes it difficult for someone ‘to
lead a normal life in the society in which they belong’.
The concern here is to examine the extent of financial exclusion across the EU on the basis
of the data collected by the EU-SILC module for 2008 which contained a set of questions
relating to this issue. The questions covered whether or not the households concerned had
a bank account and a credit or store card and, if not, the reasons for this. The analysis of
the responses and of the characteristics of those without access to a bank account or a
credit card focuses on the individuals living in the households concerned, including the
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children where relevant, rather than the households as such since all of the people
involved are affected by a lack of access to credit, just as they are by a low level of
income or not being able to afford certain goods or services.
People without bank accounts
There are various forms of financial exclusion, but one of the most basic is a lack of access
to a bank account, which in most countries in the EU would be regarded as essential in
order to be able to handle the transactions which are a normal part of daily life.
It should be noted, however, that although possession, or non-possession, of a bank
account might seem straight-forward to identify, there are difficulties attached to defining
a bank account in a comparable way across countries. Despite common developments
in the financial services sector, there are still differences between Member States in the
services typically provided by normal current accounts, and the functions which account
holders typically want or expect. These differences mean that what is generally regarded
as a bank account in the countries concerned may not conform with the definition of this
in the EU-SILC questionnaire (see Box), although the specific questions asked in the survey
may differ from country to country in line with the philosophy of the survey to take account
of national peculiarities in the design of questions1.
Definition of a bank account in the EU-SILC module
A bank current account is defined as a deposit account offering facilities for day-to-day money
management, such as flexible payment methods to allow customers to distribute money directly to
others. Standard services offered by current accounts include a cheque book, the facility to arrange
standing orders, direct debits and payment via a debit card.
A savings account is not a current account where no such facilities are available.
Across the EU as a whole, almost 12% of people lived in households which reported not
having a bank account in 2008 (Table 1). This proportion varies considerably between
countries, with over 80% of people in Bulgaria not having access to an account, 75% in
Romania and over 70% in Greece. These three countries are the only ones in the EU,
however, in which the total not having an account is over 20%, though there are three
more where the proportion is only marginally below 20% - Italy, Cyprus and Hungary.
Although the figures for Bulgaria and Romania seem high, they do not appear to be
entirely implausible given the lagging development of the two countries. On the hand, the
high figure for Greece, which has an average GDP per head some three times that of
these two, is more unexpected. Here the explanation, which could apply in some degree
to Bulgaria and Romania, appears to lie in the definition of bank account used allied with
the way in which accounts seem to be employed in the country, which essentially tends to
be as a store of money with most transactions, even relatively large ones, being carried
out in terms of cash rather than bank transfers or even cheques. Given this, it is more
rational for Greeks to have savings accounts, which pay interest – and which are explicitly
excluded from the definition of a bank account for purposes of the question – than current
accounts which do not.
1 The approach is to leave it to Member States to decide how to collect data on a particular issue, which may be
OK in principle but it means in practice that in a few cases the question asked differs so much that the results are
not comparable across countries.
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The same might apply to some extent to Bulgaria and Romania, where many banks,
especially those in rural areas, may not offer the facilities which are used in the survey to
define a bank current account. To the extent that this is the case in these two countries as
well as in Greece, it is highly questionable that the non-possession of accounts with these
facilities can be taken as an indicator of financial exclusion in these countries and the
people without such accounts being regarded as financially excluded when the great
majority of people are in the same position.
At the other extreme, there are 8 countries where the proportion without a bank account
is less than 1% (the three Nordic countries, the three Benelux countries, Germany and
France), another three (Spain, Austria and the UK), where the proportion is between 1%
and 2% and four more (Estonia, Malta, Slovenia and Portugal), where it is between 3% and
5%. In all the 6 remaining countries (the Czech Republic, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland
and Slovakia), the proportion without an account is between 14% and 18%.
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Table 1 People living in household with no bank account (% of each category)
Total
Income over
60% median
Income below
60% median
Deprived of at
least 3 of 9
items
Belgium 0.6 0.4 1.4 1.7
Bulgaria 82.9 79.5 95.6 92.2
Czech Republic 14.2 12.0 36.1 31.6
Denmark 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Germany 0.4 0.2 1.6 1.3
Estonia 3.2 1.0 12.1 10.5
Ireland 16.8 14.1 32.0 44.9
Greece 70.1 67.7 79.4 86.6
Spain 1.2 0.5 3.8 3.8
France 0.3 0.2 0.9 :
Italy 19.1 13.3 44.8 47.0
Cyprus 19.8 13.0 54.5 31.4
Latvia 14.2 6.8 35.8 28.3
Lithuania 17.7 14.5 30.3 31.6
Luxembourg 0.2 0.2 0.3 0.9
Hungary 19.9 18.1 32.8 28.4
Malta 3.9 2.9 10.0 :
Netherlands 0.2 0.2 0.3 0.5
Austria 1.8 1.3 5.8 4.2
Poland 16.1 13.0 31.0 29.9
Portugal 4.6 2.9 12.3 14.4
Romania 75.5 70.4 92.1 86.6
Slovenia 4.5 2.8 16.7 10.8
Slovakia 14.0 11.9 31.1 28.4
Finland 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Sweden 0.1 0.1 0.0 1.1
UK 2.1 1.3 5.7 11.4
EU 11.6 9.5 22.5 36.2
Source: EU-SILC 2008
Note: The data in the final column is the indicator of material deprivation used in the EU
(and approved by the Indicators sub-group of the Social Protection Committee). It
essentially consists of not being able to afford any three of 9 items included in the EUSILC.
Note that there are no data for France and Malta because these two countries do
not allow the microdata to be published to enable material deprivation to be calculated for
those without a bank account.
People without bank accounts more likely to be at risk of poverty or materially
deprived
Living in a household which does not have a bank account tends to be associated with
having a low level of income. Over the EU as a whole, over twice as many people with
income less than 60% of the median do not have a bank account as those with income
higher than this (23% as opposed to under 10%). Though the scale of the difference varies,
those with low incomes are much more likely not to have a bank account than others in
nearly all Member States. The only exceptions are, on the one hand, Bulgaria, Romania
and Greece, where few household have banks account, as defined, irrespective of their
income levels, and the countries where everyone or virtually everyone has an account. In
the latter countries, therefore, most especially the three Nordic countries, Luxembourg and
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the Netherlands, though also Belgium, Germany and France, hardly anyone, including
even those with very low income levels, does not have a bank account.
The difference in the proportion with and without bank accounts is particularly
pronounced in Italy and Cyprus, where 45% and 55%, respectively, of people with income
below 60% of the median live in households without a bank account, as compared with
only around 13% of those with income higher than this. It is also large in another 6 of the
EU12 countries – the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary Poland and Slovakia –
together with Ireland, where around a third of people with income below 60% of the
median do not have access to an account, in each case, around 2-3 times larger than
the proportion with high income levels.
A similar difference is evident between those who are materially deprived and those who
are not deprived, according to the EU indicator which has come to be used to distinguish
the households concerned (not being able to afford three or more items from a list of 9
included in the EU-SILC2).
The proportion of people identified as being deprived who do not have a bank account is
similar in most countries to the proportion of those with low income who do not have an
account, in part reflecting the overlap between the groups concerned. There is, however,
some difference between the EU12 and the EU15 countries (between those that entered
the EU in 2004 and 2007 and the countries which were already members). In the EU15, the
tendency is for the materially deprived to be slightly more likely not to have a bank
account than those with low income per se. In the EU12 countries, the opposite is the case,
suggesting perhaps that income levels are a more important determinant of having
access to a bank account in these countries than in the EU15 and reflecting the fact that
the materially deprived include many more with income above 60% of the threshold than
in the latter.
Reasons for not having a bank account
The great majority of households without a bank account report not having one because
they prefer not to rather than because they have difficulty accessing one. Only a very
small proportion of people, therefore, live in households where the lack of a bank account
is due to bank charges being too high, no bank being in easy reach, being refused an
account or thinking that they would be refused if they applied for one – less than 2% at
most overall across the EU (Table 2 - it should be noted that in the survey, questions about
not having an account are asked separately, so that households can potentially report
more than one reason for not having an account or no reason at all. Accordingly, the
percentages do not necessarily sum to the total of those not having an account and can
be either more or less than this. In each case, the figures in the table indicate the
proportion of people answering the question who responded positively to it).
2 To be more precise, the 9items include two which relate to financial problems – being in arrears in paying
household bills and not being able to meet unexpected expenses.
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Table 2 Reasons for not having a bank account (% of those answering question)
Without bank
account
No need prefer
dealing
in cash
Charges too
high
No bank
branch close
to home/work
Account
application
turned down
Banks refuse
accounts to
people like us
Belgium 0.6 0.4 0.1 0.0 : 0.1
Bulgaria 82.9 65.0 5.1 1.7 0.9 5.2
Czech Republic 14.2 10.5 2.7 0.8 0.0 0.3
Denmark : : : : : :
Germany 0.4 0.3 : : : :
Estonia 3.2 3.1 0.0 0.0 : :
Ireland 16.8 13.5 0.8 0.2 0.4 0.8
Greece 70.1 60.6 8.3 0.6 0.3 2.4
Spain 1.2 1.0 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.1
France 0.3 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Italy 19.1 17.9 0.9 0.1 0.1 0.3
Cyprus 19.8 19.4 0.2 : : 0.2
Latvia 14.2 11.8 0.2 0.4 0.0 0.2
Lithuania 17.7 17.2 0.2 0.4 0.4 0.4
Luxembourg 0.2 0.0 : : 0.0 0.0
Hungary 19.9 16.8 1.9 0.2 0.0 0.9
Malta 3.9 1.2 0.7 0.0 0.1 0.4
Netherlands 0.2 0.1 : : 0.0 0.0
Austria 1.8 1.6 0.1 0.0 0.1 0.1
Poland 16.1 13.8 0.8 0.5 0.1 0.1
Portugal 4.6 3.1 0.7 0.1 0.3 0.4
Romania 75.5 55.2 9.3 2.9 0.6 3.3
Slovenia 4.5 4.1 0.1 0.1 0.0 0.0
Slovakia 14.0 12.5 1.3 0.4 0.1 0.4
Finland : : : : : :
Sweden 0.1 : : : : :
UK 2.1 1.0 : : : :
EU 11.6 9.4 1.0 0.2 0.1 0.4
Source: EU-SILC 2008
Only in Bulgaria (5%), Greece (2%) and Romania (3%) do more than 1% of people live in
households where the belief that they would be refused if they applied is reported as a
reason for not having a bank account. In none of these countries, however, had more
than 1% of people without accounts actually been refused access to an account. In these
three countries, there were also a significant proportion of households reporting that high
bank changes were a reason for not having an account (8-9% in Greece and Romania),
whereas elsewhere, the proportion exceeded 1% only in the Czech Republic (3%),
Hungary (2%) and Slovakia (just over 1%). Except in Bulgaria (2%) and Romania (3%), in less
than 1% of cases was the distance that people lived or worked from a bank reported as a
reason for not having an account.
Although there are more people with low income who report being without a bank
account because of problems of access than those with higher income, it is still the case
that the great majority of those with income below 60% of the median without an account
report that they prefer not to have one. Accordingly, even for those with low income, not
having an account seems to be a matter of choice rather than a result of financial
exclusion (Table 3). However, Bulgaria, Greece and Romania are joined by the Czech
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Republic as a country where over 10% of people with low income are excluded from
having a bank account, in this case because of high charges.
Table 3 Reasons for not having a bank account for those with income below 60% of median (% of
those answering question)
Without bank
account
No need prefer
dealing
in cash
Charges too
high
No bank
branch close
to home/work
Account
application
turned down
Banks refuse
accounts to
people like us
Belgium 1.4 0.9 0.2 0.0 : 0.3
Bulgaria 95.6 68.0 8.1 1.9 2.0 10.9
Czech Republic 36.1 21.4 11.0 2.4 : 3.0
Denmark : : : : : :
Germany 1.6 1.0 : : : :
Estonia 12.1 11.9 0.1 0.2 : :
Ireland 32.0 24.7 2.4 0.5 0.6 2.5
Greece 79.4 64.0 11.8 1.4 0.8 5.4
Spain 3.8 3.2 0.3 0.0 0.0 0.3
France 0.9 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.2
Italy 44.8 41.5 2.5 0.2 0.4 0.8
Cyprus 54.5 52.6 1.0 : : 1.4
Latvia 35.8 30.3 0.8 1.3 0.0 0.7
Lithuania 30.3 29.4 0.3 0.7 1.0 0.9
Luxembourg 0.3 0.2 : : 0.0 0.0
Hungary 32.8 25.5 3.3 0.5 0.0 3.4
Malta 10.0 1.7 3.4 0.0 0.1 2.4
Netherlands 0.3 : : : 0.2 0.2
Austria 5.8 4.7 0.5 : 0.4 0.5
Poland 31.0 26.0 2.1 1.0 0.1 0.2
Portugal 12.3 8.3 2.1 : 0.4 1.6
Romania 92.1 66.8 11.8 4.3 0.5 6.2
Slovenia 16.7 14.7 0.7 0.2 0.3 0.3
Slovakia 31.1 25.1 4.3 1.5 0.8 2.7
Finland : : : : : :
Sweden : : : : : :
UK 5.7 2.5 : : : :
EU 22.5 17.8 2.0 0.5 0.2 1.1
Source: EU-SILC 2008
The same is the case for those who are materially deprived according to the EU indicator
(table not shown).
Slightly more women than men without a bank account and many more older
people
The proportion of women who live in households which do not have a bank account is
somewhat larger than for men (12% as against 11% in the EU as a whole), which is mainly a
reflection of the larger number of women in older age groups, many of whom live alone
(Table 4). Accordingly, the difference in the number of women and men without an
account tends to be larger in EU12 countries than in EU15 Member States, mainly because
of the much larger number of older people who do not have a bank account in these
countries.
In the EU overall, some 18% of those aged 65 and over live in households without a bank
account as opposed to just under 11% of those younger than this. In the EU12 countries,
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however, the difference is much larger. Estonia, Malta and Slovenia apart, over 40% of
people of 65 and over in all of the countries, including Cyprus, report not having an
account, whereas the proportion for those aged 25-64 is less than 16% in all of the
countries except Bulgaria and Romania.
Table 4 People without a bank account by sex and age group
Men Women 16-24 25-64 65+
Belgium 0.6 0.6 0.4 0.4 1.6
Bulgaria 82.8 83.1 80.8 81.2 91.3
Czech Republic 12.6 15.7 7.0 9.0 48.1
Denmark : : : : :
Germany 0.5 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.5
Estonia 2.8 3.5 0.4 1.6 12.8
Ireland 16.6 17.1 16.6 15.0 28.9
Greece 69.3 70.9 71.6 67.5 81.9
Spain 1.2 1.2 1.3 0.9 2.1
France 0.2 0.3 : 0.3 0.3
Italy 17.6 20.6 18.7 15.9 29.8
Cyprus 18.3 21.1 11.1 15.6 63.9
Latvia 12.6 15.6 7.2 10.4 40.2
Lithuania 15.9 19.2 12.0 13.8 42.4
Luxembourg 0.1 0.2 0.0 0.2 0.0
Hungary 18.4 21.3 12.8 15.6 50.8
Malta 4.2 3.5 : 3.4 4.3
Netherlands 0.2 0.2 0.3 0.2 0.1
Austria 1.7 2.0 1.0 1.2 4.6
Poland 15.1 17.0 9.7 12.2 44.9
Portugal 4.4 4.8 3.8 3.8 9.4
Romania 75.3 75.6 73.4 72.8 87.2
Slovenia 3.6 5.3 1.2 2.3 18.5
Slovakia 11.8 16.0 4.6 8.1 55.4
Finland : : : : :
Sweden 0.1 0.1 0.0 0.1 0.1
UK 2.0 2.2 1.5 1.8 2.8
EU 11.2 12.1 : 10.5 18.1
Source: EU-SILC 2008
Note: No data available for age groups 18-24 and 25-64v for France, Malta and the EU. In each
case, the figure under 25-64 relates to those aged 18-64
AgeSex
In EU15 countries, it is also mostly the case that people aged 65 and over are less likely to
have a bank account than those younger than this, but the difference tends to be much
smaller. Only in Ireland, Greece and Italy is the difference more than 10 percentage points
(in each case, around 14 percentage points).
A further difference between EU15 and EU12 countries relates to those aged 16-24. For
these, the proportion living in households without a bank account tends to be smaller in
the EU12 than for those aged 25-64 (the only exceptions are Bulgaria and Romania, where
the figures are much the same. This contrasts with the situation in the EU15, where the
proportions for the two groups tend to be much the same or larger (in Greece and Italy).
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This may reflect a tendency for more of the younger generation in the EU12 countries to
have a bank account than their parents, though because many young people in this age
group continue to live with their parents (and the data for bank accounts are collected
on a household rather than an individual basis), this is difficult to verify.
Exclusion from not having a bank account by sex and age
In most countries, there are no great differences between either men or women or people
in different age groups who are excluded from having a bank account for reasons other
than they prefer not to have one (Table 5, which is restricted to those not having a bank
account for reasons of high charges, being refused one or a belief that they would be
refused).
As in the case of the population as a whole, the great majority of the older people who do
not have a bank account report that it is because they have no need for one rather than
because they have problems in obtaining an account or paying the charges on it. Much
the same proportion of those aged 65 and over, therefore, cite one of the latter as a
reason for not having an account as those aged 25-64, in both cases, less than 1.5% of
people. Only in Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Greece and Romania is
the proportion larger than this for both age groups, only in the last four countries is it larger
than 6% for those aged 65 and over and only in the last three, larger than 6% for those
aged 25-64.
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Table 5 People excluded from having a bank account by sex and age (% in each group)
Male Female 16-24 25-64 65+
Belgium 0.2 0.1 0.2 0.2 0.1
Bulgaria 8.6 8.7 10.8 8.2 6.8
Czech Republic 2.6 3.0 2.0 2.0 7.7
Denmark : : : : :
Germany : : : : :
Estonia : 0.0 : : 0.1
Ireland 1.7 1.9 2.2 1.6 1.0
Greece 9.3 9.5 11.2 9.5 7.9
Spain 0.1 0.1 0.3 0.1 0.0
France : : : : :
Italy 1.0 1.1 1.4 1.1 1.0
Cyprus 0.4 0.4 0.6 0.3 0.3
Latvia 0.5 0.3 0.2 0.4 0.6
Lithuania 0.4 0.5 1.0 0.5 0.1
Luxembourg 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 :
Hungary 2.7 2.9 2.6 2.6 4.3
Malta : : : : :
Netherlands : 0.1 : 0.0 :
Austria 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.2
Poland 0.9 0.9 0.8 0.8 1.3
Portugal 0.9 0.8 1.4 0.8 0.9
Romania 10.5 11.1 12.4 10.3 10.8
Slovenia 0.1 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.5
Slovakia 1.5 1.4 1.1 1.1 3.2
Finland : : : : :
Sweden : : : : :
UK : : : : :
EU 1.3 1.4 1.7 1.3 1.4
Source: EU-SILC 2008
Sex Age of the individual
Note: Those reporting any of the three reasons implying financial exclusion - 'Charges are too
high', 'Household has applied for an account and been turned down' and 'Banks refuse accounts to
such households'. No data are available for France and Malta. The eu total excludes these two
countries.
People without credit cards or other forms of borrowing
A significant proportion of people in the EU live in households which do not have a credit
card, an overdraft facility or an outstanding loan of any form (including a mortgage).
Overall, over a third of people (35%) in EU Member States fall into this category according
to the responses to the EU-SILC ad hoc module. The proportion varies from over 70% in
Romania, around two-thirds in Bulgaria and Lithuania and half or more in the Czech
Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Italy to only around 15% in the UK and just 7% in
Luxembourg (Table 6).
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Table 6 People living in households with no credit card, overdraft facility or outstanding loan,
including mortgages (% of each category)
Total
Above 60% of
median
Below 60% of
median
Materially
deprived
Belgium 31.4 27.6 53.4 39.6
Bulgaria 66.8 62.5 82.5 74.4
Czech Republic 55.2 54.7 60.7 56.6
Denmark 19.5 17.1 37.9 30.7
Germany 27.8 24.8 44.6 35.4
Estonia 44.8 37.6 74.2 60.6
Ireland 25.7 21.2 50.5 48.6
Greece 46.0 43.5 55.7 55.3
Spain 20.0 15.9 36.5 25.4
France : : : :
Italy 50.0 45.3 70.1 59.4
Cyprus 23.3 16.2 59.6 32.8
Latvia 40.3 31.4 66.2 52.3
Lithuania 66.8 62.9 82.6 79.4
Luxembourg 7.0 5.1 19.8 24.9
Hungary 57.5 56.4 65.6 57.5
Malta : : : :
Netherlands 20.4 18.5 36.9 41.8
Austria 25.4 22.6 45.9 29.3
Poland 49.7 47.1 62.4 58.2
Portugal 37.6 32.7 59.3 54.7
Romania 72.2 66.7 89.9 79.8
Slovenia 21.1 17.7 45.7 27.2
Slovakia 54.1 53.3 60.8 58.9
Finland 21.6 17.0 50.9 38.2
Sweden 23.1 19.7 47.9 41.8
UK 15.5 11.4 33.5 37.7
EU 35.4 31.7 53.6 54.3
Note: No data available for France and Malta. Data for Germany exclude mortgages.
Source: EU-SILC 2008
A much larger proportion of those with low incomes or identified as being materially
deprived do not have credit cards and/or outstanding loans of any kind than other
people. In the EU as a whole, just over half of people with income below 60% of the
median live in households with neither credit cards nor outstanding loans as opposed to
just under a third of those with higher levels of income
The proportion of those on low income with no credit card or outstanding loans of any kind
rises to over 80% in the majority of the EU12 countries (to 90% in Romania). The exceptions
are the two countries with higher levels of income, Cyprus and Slovenia, together with
Estonia, where the figure is close to three-quarters, and the Czech Republic and Slovakia,
which stand out as having relatively little difference in the proportion with no credit card or
outstanding loan between those with income below 60% of the median and those with
income above this.
European Commission
Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities
Social Situation Observatory – Living Conditions and Income Distribution 2010
November 2010
14
In the EU15 countries, over 70% of people with income below 60% of the median have no
credit card or loans in Italy and almost 60% in Portugal, while in Belgium, Ireland, Greece
and Finland, the proportion is over half, in each case (though to a lesser extent in Greece)
substantially more than for those with income above this level. Indeed, even in the EU15,
over a third of people with income below 60% of the median do not have a credit card or
an outstanding loan in all countries apart from Luxembourg.
Much the same pattern is also evident for those who are materially deprived according to
the EU indicator of this (essentially not being able to afford three out of 9 items)
The effect of separating mortgages from other forms of credit
The above findings are affected to some extent by the inclusion of mortgages as part of
lending, though the fact that those on low incomes or materially deprived are much less
likely to have a credit card or an outstanding loan of any kind is not altered. As would be
expected, therefore, people with mortgages tend to be disproportionately those with
higher income levels and in virtually all countries few people on low incomes have a
mortgage.
Overall in the EU, only just over a quarter of people live in households with a mortgage and
some 73% do not (Table 7).
The proportion of people without a mortgage, however, is well over 90% in most EU12
countries and over 80% in all of them, while in the EU15, it is also above 80% in Greece and
Italy, but these two countries apart, it is under two-thirds in all Member States, except
Portugal, where it is slightly over. On the other hand, the figure is less than half only in
Sweden (44%) and the Netherlands (40%).
In all countries, in the EU12 as well as the EU15, the proportion of people with mortgages is
smaller for those low income than for those with higher levels, though less so in the EU12,
where the great majority of people irrespective of their income level own their own homes
(a legacy of the privatisation process which occurred at the beginning of the transition in
the early 1990s). In the EU as a whole, only just over 12% of people with income below 60%
of the median have a mortgage, so that almost 88% do not, as against 70% for those with
income above 60% of the median. In all EU12 countries, however, the proportion of those
on low income without a mortgage is around 95%. In Greece and Italy, it is also over 90%
and in all other EU15 countries, around 75% or more.
Interestingly, unlike the picture for all forms of credit, people who are materially deprived
(or more precisely live in households which are deprived according to the EU indicator)
are more likely to have mortgages than the rest of the population and far more likely to do
so than those with low income levels per se. This is the case in virtually all countries,
reflecting perhaps the burden which the cost of meeting mortgage payments tends to
represent and the effect that this is has on the ability of households to purchase goods
and services considered necessary for an acceptable standard of living.
European Commission
Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities
Social Situation Observatory – Living Conditions and Income Distribution 2010
November 2010
15
Table 7 People living in households with no mortgage (% of each category)
Total
Above 60% of
median
Below 60% of
median
Materially
deprived
Belgium 59.9 56.1 81.4 57.8
Bulgaria 90.1 88.3 96.7 87.9
Czech Republic 88.1 87.5 94.2 87.8
Denmark 45.6 40.6 83.4 43.0
Germany : : : :
Estonia 87.7 85.3 97.7 86.9
Ireland 64.8 61.1 85.2 61.9
Greece 86.4 85.1 91.6 84.6
Spain 65.9 62.7 79.3 65.8
France : : : :
Italy 85.2 83.3 93.6 84.7
Cyprus 81.6 79.2 93.9 80.4
Latvia 92.4 90.5 97.9 90.9
Lithuania 92.7 91.3 98.2 91.5
Luxembourg 58.1 56.1 70.8 57.3
Hungary 81.3 81.0 83.6 81.5
Malta : : : :
Netherlands 39.6 35.3 76.6 36.4
Austria 66.2 63.5 85.3 64.8
Poland 95.3 94.8 98.0 93.6
Portugal 69.1 65.4 85.5 65.9
Romania 98.9 98.6 99.8 98.2
Slovenia 94.5 94.2 97.0 94.7
Slovakia 93.9 93.9 94.3 93.4
Finland 56.8 52.2 85.9 54.2
Sweden 43.9 39.8 73.9 41.0
UK 53.2 47.4 77.6 49.4
EU 73.2 70.2 87.5 69.7
Note: No data available for Germany, France and Malta.
Source: EU-SILC 2008
Excluding mortgages from credit and loans, as indicated above, tends to narrow the
difference slightly between those with low incomes and those with higher levels but it does
not change the above finding that the former are less likely to have a credit card or other
forms of borrowing than the latter, in many cases, much less likely. In the EU as a whole,
therefore, almost 57% of people with income below 60% of the median have no credit
card or outstanding loan of any kind, other than a mortgage, as compared with 37% of
those with income above 60% of the median (Table 8). The difference is particularly wide
(around 30 percentage points or more) in Estonia, Latvia and Finland and, above all in
Cyprus (where the difference is over 40 percentage points).
In this case, the proportion of people who are identified as being materially deprived
according to the EU indicator who have no credit card or outstanding loan, excluding
mortgages, is virtually the same at EU level as for those with income below 60% of the
median (57%), emphasising the different situation of those with mortgages among people
with low income. In a number of countries, however, it is still the case that the materially
European Commission
Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities
Social Situation Observatory – Living Conditions and Income Distribution 2010
November 2010
16
deprived are much more likely to have a credit card or outstanding loan than those with
low income. In 10 of the 25 countries for which data are available, therefore, the
proportion of the materially deprived without a credit card or outstanding loan, excluding
mortgages, was over 10 percentage points smaller than for those with income below 60%
of the median.
Table 8 People living in households with no credit card, overdraft facility or outstanding loan,
excluding mortgages (% of each category)
Total
Above
threshold
Below
threshold
Materially
deprived
Belgium 45.3 42.9 59.7 45.6
Bulgaria 69.4 65.4 84.3 77.1
Czech Republic 60.6 60.2 64.2 60.4
Denmark 35.6 34.1 46.8 33.8
Germany 27.8 24.8 44.6 35.4
Estonia 47.0 40.3 74.7 61.4
Ireland 30.7 26.1 55.3 55.2
Greece 49.7 47.4 58.9 57.3
Spain 23.9 20.0 40.2 29.2
France : : : :
Italy 55.1 51.1 72.6 64.1
Cyprus 25.8 18.8 61.4 35.8
Latvia 41.5 32.9 66.7 53.6
Lithuania 69.4 65.9 83.8 82.1
Luxembourg 8.4 6.3 22.1 25.9
Hungary 67.2 66.1 74.6 67.2
Malta : : : :
Netherlands 39.1 37.9 49.5 43.1
Austria 33.6 31.2 50.5 34.1
Poland 50.7 48.3 62.8 58.6
Portugal 45.5 41.3 64.0 59.9
Romania 72.6 67.2 90.1 80.0
Slovenia 21.8 18.4 46.2 28.4
Slovakia 54.5 53.7 60.8 59.1
Finland 26.7 22.4 54.4 41.7
Sweden 43.4 41.2 59.0 49.8
UK 19.8 15.5 38.2 42.3
EU 40.0 36.7 56.5 56.8
Note: No data available for France and Malta.
Source: EU-SILC 2008
It should be noted that in nearly all countries, more people do not have a credit card or
an outstanding loan than do not have a bank account. This is to be expected insofar as a
bank account is a basic requirement in most cases for having a credit card or an overdraft
facility, though it may be possible to have a store card or some kinds of loan without
having an account. The only three exceptions are Bulgaria, Romania and, most notably,
Greece, where 80% more people have a credit card or an outstanding loan than have a
bank account. This reflects the point made earlier that it is almost certainly the case that
many more Greek households have a bank account than are indicated in the EU-SILC
module but not one that conforms with the definition of a current account used in the
module. The bank accounts concerned, therefore, might provide access to a credit card
European Commission
Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities
Social Situation Observatory – Living Conditions and Income Distribution 2010
November 2010
17
or overdraft facility even though they might not include other facilities which are part of
the module definition.
It is also the case that, even if mortgages are excluded, the proportion of people without
a credit card or outstanding loan tends to be larger in the EU12 countries than the EU15.
The 5 countries in which the proportion concerned is over 60% are all among the EU12. This
reflects the fact that credit facilities are less developed in most of the EU12 countries than
the EU15, so that access to borrowing is more limited than in the latter. This is especially the
case for people with low income, though in the 5 countries concerned – Bulgaria, the
Czech Republic, Lithuania, Hungary and Romania – over 60% of those with income above
60% of the median also had no credit card or outstanding loan.
At the same time, the same applies to over half the people in Italy and around half in
Greece as well as to around 45% in Belgium, Portugal and Sweden in the EU15.
Reasons for not having credit card or outstanding loan
Not having a credit card, an overdraft facility or an outstanding loan, however, can in no
way be taken as an indication of lack of access to credit. Most of the people in this
situation (in this case including mortgages among outstanding loans) report having no
need to borrow, while a significant proportion borrow from friends or relatives rather than
from banks or other credit institutions.
Across the EU as a whole, therefore, some 40% of people living in households with no credit
facilities or outstanding loans, report that they have no need to borrow, the proportion
rising to almost 80% in Denmark and over 60% in Belgium and Germany (Table 9, in which,
it should be noted, that the figures relate to those answering the questions indicated,
which were asked individually in the module, except in some countries3; the low figures for
most countries indicate that most people answering the question answered negatively).
On the other hand, in Italy, where half of the population lived in households with no credit
facilities or outstanding loans, only 2% report that they have no need to borrow and
around 40% report being able to borrow from friends or family. The extent to which people
have access to credit or borrowing of some kind, therefore, is much larger than the figures
for ‘formal’ arrangements imply. The same is the case in Bulgaria, Romania and Portugal,
where around 40% or so report being able to borrow from informal sources, and, to a lesser
extent, in Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia and Spain, where around 30% have access to borrowing
from friends and family. Accordingly, informal arrangements tend to be important in
countries where formal access to credit is relatively limited.
In some of these countries, it is also the case that a significant number of people do not
have credit facilities or loans because of an inability to repay. This is particularly so in
Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia. It is also the case, however, in Hungary, Greece and, to a
lesser extent, the Czech Republic, in all of which a relatively small proportion of people
report being able to borrow from friends or relatives. In these countries, therefore, the
implication is that there may be a significant unmet demand for borrowing among
households.
The other reasons suggested for not having credit facilities or loans – to do with lack of
access to such facilities – are relevant for only a very small proportion of people in most
3 In the UK, respondents were asked to specify the main reason, with ‘other’ being included as an option, which
meant a large number of missing values.
European Commission
Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities
Social Situation Observatory – Living Conditions and Income Distribution 2010
November 2010
18
countries. Only in Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Slovakia and Portugal do more than 1% of
people live in households for which an application for credit or a loan has been turned
down and only in Romania and Bulgaria have more than 1% of people had a credit
facility withdrawn. While a larger proportion of people think that there is no point in
applying for a credit facility because it would be refused, the figure across the EU as a
whole is only just over 2%. Only in Romania and Bulgaria is it over 10% and, apart from
these, only in Germany, Slovakia, Portugal and Hungary is it over 3%.
European Commission
Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities
Social Situation Observatory – Living Conditions and Income Distribution 2010
November 2010
19
Table 9 Reasons for not having credit card, overdraft facility or outstanding loan (% of
those answering question)
No overdraft
facility/credit card/
outstanding loans
No need to
borrow
Can borrow
from friends/
family
Not able to
repay
Application for
loan turned
down
Loan facility
withdrawn
Banks refuse
credit to people
like us
Belgium 31.4 69.3 0.9 4.6 0.2 0.0 1.3
Bulgaria 66.8 38.9 41.4 24.2 1.6 1.1 10.4
Czech Republic 55.2 48.9 9.4 11.9 0.9 0.2 2.5
Denmark 19.5 78.0 0.4 0.9 0.1 0.0 0.4
Germany 27.8 63.5 6.4 6.1 0.4 0.2 4.5
Estonia 44.8 41.2 29.5 2.4 0.5 0.0 1.8
Ireland 25.7 13.4 1.9 5.9 0.6 0.0 2.3
Greece 46.0 57.1 6.2 17.9 0.5 0.2 2.2
Spain 20.0 42.3 29.3 0.9 0.3 0.1 0.7
France : 30.3 1.0 3.3 2.7 0.0 1.7
Italy 50.0 53.7 25.6 1.7 0.4 0.0 0.9
Cyprus 23.3 21.7 6.8 1.3 0.3 0.2 0.5
Latvia 40.3 44.9 31.9 7.9 0.6 0.1 2.3
Lithuania 66.8 50.9 16.0 5.3 0.3 0.1 1.6
Luxembourg 7.0 5.0 0.9 0.8 0.1 0.0 0.7
Hungary 57.5 29.8 6.4 34.0 0.7 0.1 3.2
Malta : 25.2 0.7 2.5 0.2 0.0 1.1
Netherlands 20.4 14.8 0.0 0.3 : : :
Austria 25.4 27.3 15.5 3.0 0.4 0.4 0.9
Poland 49.7 36.6 22.3 8.4 0.6 0.1 0.8
Portugal 37.6 57.7 37.7 9.3 1.0 0.4 4.0
Romania 72.3 21.3 43.3 39.8 2.7 1.5 10.2
Slovenia 21.1 18.1 2.5 4.7 1.5 0.2 2.7
Slovakia 54.1 39.1 28.0 18.9 1.4 0.2 4.5
Finland 21.6 34.8 0.8 0.6 0.2 0.1 0.3
Sweden 23.1 0.2 0.0 : : : :
UK 15.5 11.2 1.1 6.2 0.2 0.3 0.3
EU 35.5 40.1 14.0 7.3 0.8 0.2 2.3
Source: EU-SILC 2008
Note: No information is available on mortgages for Germany, for which the figures are based on those with no credit facilities or
outstanding loans apart from this.
As would be expected, the proportion of people in households with income below 60% of
the median without formal access to credit – or who think they do not have access – or
report not being able to repay loans is larger than for the total population.
Overall for this group, a similar proportion of this income group without an overdraft facility,
credit card or other loan reported that they had no need for such facilities as for the
population as a whole (just over 42%), while a larger proportion (over 20%) reported that
they could borrow from friends or relatives if necessary (Table 10).
Just over 16% of those with low income, however, reported that they would be unable to
repay a loan if they took one out, as against just 7% of those with higher income levels,
while just over 7% (as against only 2%) considered that they would be refused if they
applied for a credit facility.
The proportion for those not able to repay if they were to borrow is especially large in the
EU12 countries among those with income below 60% of the median. It was almost 60% in
Romania and around 55% in Hungary, while in Bulgaria and Slovakia, it was around 40%
and almost a third in the Czech Republic. In Greece, it was also around a third and almost
20% in Germany and Poland.
European Commission
Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities
Social Situation Observatory – Living Conditions and Income Distribution 2010
November 2010
20
Table 10 Reasons for not having credit card, overdraft facility or outstanding loan among those with
income below 60% of median (% of those answering question)
No overdraft
facility/credit card/
outstanding loans
No need to
borrow
Can borrow
from friends/
family
Not able to
repay
Application for
loan turned
down
Loan facility
withdrawn
Banks refuse
credit to people
like us
Belgium 53.4 61.2 1.2 13.6 0.5 : 6.2
Bulgaria 82.5 36.7 42.4 40.2 2.6 0.4 21.3
Czech Republic 60.7 33.2 14.5 32.6 5.4 0.9 13.5
Denmark 37.9 79.7 1.0 3.8 0.2 : 2.4
Germany 44.6 52.2 11.5 18.4 1.1 0.2 17.9
Estonia 74.2 63.4 46.9 8.1 1.0 : 6.2
Ireland 50.5 26.7 5.2 15.3 0.5 : 4.4
Greece 55.7 45.0 8.8 31.4 1.0 0.3 3.7
Spain 36.5 52.7 35.4 2.6 1.0 0.3 2.5
France : 32.0 2.7 11.3 7.7 0.0 6.1
Italy 70.1 66.6 33.9 5.6 0.9 0.0 2.5
Cyprus 59.6 55.4 19.6 3.5 0.6 0.4 1.1
Latvia 66.2 56.1 38.5 15.6 1.7 0.2 5.8
Lithuania 82.6 51.9 28.9 11.3 0.2 0.3 5.3
Luxembourg 19.8 11.2 2.3 5.2 0.7 : 3.7
Hungary 65.6 11.7 3.7 53.9 2.6 : 7.9
Malta : 31.9 2.0 6.3 1.4 0.0 3.0
Netherlands 36.9 26.9 : 0.5 : : :
Austria 45.9 38.4 27.9 8.8 1.6 1.3 3.9
Poland 62.4 37.0 28.8 19.3 1.3 0.0 2.3
Portugal 59.3 52.9 40.0 16.1 2.5 1.0 10.1
Romania 89.9 16.7 46.0 58.0 4.2 2.1 19.4
Slovenia 45.7 32.0 7.5 15.8 4.8 1.2 10.5
Slovakia 60.8 27.2 30.8 38.4 4.5 0.3 12.5
Finland 50.9 56.0 5.5 1.9 0.9 0.4 0.5
Sweden 47.9 0.5 0.1 : : : :
UK 33.5 22.0 4.2 13.9 0.8 0.7 1.3
EU 53.6 42.5 20.9 16.4 2.0 0.4 7.3
Source: EU-SILC 2008
Note: No information is available on mortgages for Germany, for which the figures are based on those with no credit facilities or
outstanding loans apart from this.
Equally, although only a few people with low income had had an application for a credit
facility turned down – under 5% in all countries, apart from France (almost 8%) and the
Czech Republic (just over 5%) – it was still the case that a significant proportion considered
that they would be turned down if they applied. This proportion was around 20% in
Bulgaria and Romania and 18% in Germany, while in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, it
was around 13% and in Portugal and Slovenia, around 10%.
In a number of countries, therefore, there is evidence of a sizable proportion of people
being excluded from having access to credit facilities either by not being able to repay or
by believing that they would not obtain credit if they tried. In many of the countries,
concerned, however, informal sources of borrowing in the shape of friends or relatives
seem to be important if people need a loan. This is particularly the case in Bulgaria,
Romania, Slovakia, Poland and Portugal.
The proportion of people who have a need to borrow but do not have access tends to be
larger for those identified as being materially deprived according to the EU indicator than
European Commission
Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities
Social Situation Observatory – Living Conditions and Income Distribution 2010
November 2010
21
for those with low income. Across the EU as a whole, only just over 30% of the people
concerned reported that they had not need for credit or to borrow as against over 40% of
both the population as a whole and those with income below 60% of the median (Table
11).
Table 11 Reasons for not having credit card, overdraft facility or outstanding loan among those
materially deprived (% of those answering question)
No credit
card/outstanding
loans
No need to
borrow
Can borrow
from
friends/family
Not able to
repay
Application for
loan turned
down
Loan facility
withdrawn
Banks refuse
applications
from people
Belgium 39.6 36.6 1.6 24.4 1.1 0.1 7.1
Bulgaria 74.4 36.2 40.6 36.0 2.7 1.2 15.7
Czech Republic 56.6 26.9 13.5 30.6 3.3 0.6 9.4
Denmark 30.7 53.8 3.1 11.0 1.8 0.9 5.2
Germany 35.4 30.5 9.4 22.6 1.8 0.4 21.8
Estonia 60.6 43.0 34.1 12.8 2.3 0.3 10.2
Ireland 48.6 14.6 3.9 24.5 4.3 0.3 10.7
Greece 55.3 38.6 9.3 35.0 1.7 0.3 5.1
Spain 25.4 29.3 15.3 4.9 2.6 1.1 5.4
France : : : : : : :
Italy 59.4 55.4 20.6 7.9 1.7 0.0 3.8
Cyprus 32.8 28.6 10.1 3.4 0.8 0.3 1.3
Latvia 52.3 45.4 29.3 15.0 1.5 0.4 5.5
Lithuania 79.4 42.8 35.6 14.2 0.2 0.2 4.8
Luxembourg 24.9 9.5 2.3 11.1 2.4 : 8.2
Hungary 57.5 12.9 4.0 50.1 1.1 0.2 5.8
Malta : : : : : : :
Netherlands 41.8 32.2 : 0.7 : : :
Austria 29.3 31.0 21.6 11.2 1.6 1.2 5.1
Poland 58.2 36.2 25.8 17.1 1.3 0.0 1.8
Portugal 54.7 41.1 32.2 22.7 4.0 1.3 14.1
Romania 79.8 16.2 40.2 55.7 3.4 2.0 14.9
Slovenia 27.2 19.1 7.0 16.1 5.3 0.6 10.1
Slovakia 58.9 22.4 29.6 39.2 3.1 0.2 10.8
Finland 38.2 33.0 5.8 2.6 0.2 0.6 0.8
Sweden 41.8 : : : : : :
UK 37.7 13.5 5.4 20.8 1.9 2.3 2.6
EU 54.3 31.5 21.2 25.5 2.1 0.7 9.1
Source: EU-SILC 2008
Note: No information is available on mortgages for Germany, for which the figures are based on those with no credit facilities or
outstanding loans apart from this. No data available for France and Malta.
Moreover, just over a quarter reported not having a credit facility or an outstanding loan
because they were not able to pay (against just 7% of the population as a hole and 16%
of those with low income), while 9% considered that they would be refused if they applied
for credit to a bank or lending institution.
In the same way as for those without a bank account, there is a systematic difference in
the proportion of those not being able to repay a loan between people with low income
and those materially deprived in the EU15 countries as compared with the EU12 countries.
In all the EU15 countries without exception, more people identified a materially deprived
without a credit card or loan facility reported an inability to repay as a reason than those
with income below 60% of the median. In all EU12 with the exception of Estonia, Lithuania
and (marginally) Slovenia, the reverse was the case, reflecting, as indicated above, that
material deprivation extends much further up the income range in these countries than in
European Commission
Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities
Social Situation Observatory – Living Conditions and Income Distribution 2010
November 2010
22
the EU15. Accordingly, in the EU15, material deprivation is more of an indicator of ability to
pay than having income below 60% of the median, while in the EU12, the opposite applies.
Concluding remarks
The definition of a bank account adopted in the EU-SILC module makes it difficult to
compare the proportion of the population without such an account between countries, in
particular between countries with an advanced financial system and those with a less
developed one. In particular, the very large proportions of people reported as not having
a bank account in Bulgaria, Romania and, above all, Greece, almost certainly give a
misleading impression of the situation in these countries as compared with other EU
Member States, where only a small minority do not have an account.
Nevertheless, despite the uncertainty over the comparability of the data collected by the
module, they do show clearly that in all countries those with low income, and in the EU15
in particular, those identified as materially deprived, are far more likely not to have a bank
account than those with higher income levels. They are show that the great majority of
people without a bank account are in such a situation by choice rather than because
they do not have access to an account and while there are more of those with low
incomes or materially deprived who do not have access, even for these, the numbers
involved are very small, except in a few country (Bulgaria, Romania, Greece and the
Czech Republic).
Slightly more women than men do not have a bank account and a larger proportion of
older people of 65 and over, which because there are more women in the latter group is a
prime reason for fewer women having accounts. These differences, however, seem to be
down to preference rather than there being differential access as such.
Just over a third of people live in households which do not have an overdraft facility, credit
card or outstanding loan of any kind, though the proportion is much larger in most cases in
the EU12 countries than in the EU15. This partly reflects the less developed nature of the
financial system in these countries, though the proportion is also large in a number of EU15
countries.
In both groups of countries, the proportion of people without a credit facility or
outstanding loan is much larger among those with low incomes or identified as being
materially deprived than among the rest of the population. This arises in some degree from
mortgages being much more prevalent among those with higher income levels than with
those with low levels, but it is also the case, perhaps surprisingly that the people identified
as materially deprived are much more likely to have a mortgage than those with low
incomes, which could be a factor underlying their deprivation.
As in the case of bank accounts, the great majority of those without a credit facility or an
outstanding loan report preferring not to need one rather than not having access to one.
Nevertheless, there are significant numbers of people in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and
Slovakia, as well as Greece, who do not access, in particular, because of an inability to
repay, and an even larger proportion of those with low income. This is also the case for the
latter in the Czech Republic and to a lesser extent in Germany and Poland. Moreover, a
sizable number (over 20%) of the materially deprived are in the same position in Belgium,
Ireland, Portugal and the UK, as well as Germany.