Regulation (EC) No 458/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 April 2007 on the European system of integrated social protection statistics (ESSPROS) (Text with EEA relevance) (c. 458)

Article 2 Definitions

For the purpose of this Regulation, the following definitions shall apply:

(a)

‘Community statistics’ shall have the meaning assigned to it in Article 2 of Regulation (EC) No 322/97;

(b)

‘Social protection’: all interventions from public or private bodies intended to relieve households and individuals of the burden of a defined set of risks or needs, provided that neither a simultaneous reciprocal arrangement nor an individual arrangement is involved. The list of risks or needs that may give rise to social protection is, by convention, as follows: sickness and/or health care; disability; old age; survivorship; family/children; unemployment; housing; and social exclusion not elsewhere classified;

(c)

‘Social protection scheme’: a distinct body of rules, supported by one or more institutional units, governing the provision of social protection benefits and their financing;

(d)

‘Social protection benefits’: transfers, in cash or in kind, by social protection schemes to households and individuals to relieve them of the burden of one or more of the defined risks or needs;

(e)

‘Fiscal benefits’: social protection provided in the form of tax breaks that would be defined as social protection benefits if they were provided in cash, excluding tax breaks promoting the provision of social protection or promoting private insurance plans;

(f)

‘Net social protection benefits’: the value of social protection benefits excluding taxes and social contributions paid by the benefits' recipients complemented by the value of fiscal benefits.