Data Warehouse Labour Market and Social Protection (DWH LM&SP) – family benefits

Summary

Strengths: The typical strengths associated with administrative data apply. The use of administrative data is cost-effective, data quality is high, non-response is inexistent, etc. Specifically for life-course researchers, there are several added advantages, such as lack of attrition in between waves, lack of memory bias, etc. Typical for the Belgian situation is that all administrative datasets contain the National Register number and can therefore accurately be linked. Weaknesses: Apart from the typical weaknesses of administrative data (e.g. lack of data on opinions, motivations etc.), the following problems can be mentioned: (1) There is no information on educational levels; (2) Due to an evolution in register systems, the data contain some statistical breaks; (3) Data on personal and household characteristics only become available with a three year time lag; (4) Information on the Data Warehouse Labour Market and Social Protection is only available in French and Dutch; (5) Belgian social security is extremely complex. As a consequence, the data that follow from it are also highly technical. This means that it is almost impossible to use the data without thorough and detailed knowledge of the Belgian social security system. We therefore strongly advise foreign researchers to collaborate with Belgian research teams that have experience with the data.

Type of data

Data Source
Registry

Type of Study
Other: Longitudinal administrative data

Data gathering method
Registries

Access to data

Conditions of access
The data are available for academic and policy research. Researchers and policy-makers can either use the microdata or online modules to generate aggregate data.

Type of available data (e.g. anonymised microdata, aggregated tables, etc.)
Anonymised microdata; aggregated tables in online module

Formats available
SAS, Excel, PDF

Coverage

Coverage Years of collection, reference years, and sample sizes
1997-2011

First year of collection
Data for employees: 1997; Data for civil servants: 2008; Data for self-employed: 2000

Stratification if applicable

Base used for sampling

Geographical coverage and breakdowns
Breakdown by region (Flanders, Wallonia, Brussels Capital Region), by province, by municipality and by district.

Age range
The total population is covered.

Statistical representativeness
Population representative

Coverage of main and cross-cutting topics
The DWH LM & SP is the most important dataset to study social systems and welfare in Belgium. Data on entitlement to family benefits (i.e. child allowances and maternity grants) for employees and civil servants are provided by the National Family Allowances Office `Rijksdienst voor kinderbijslag voor werknemers / Office national d’allocations familiales`. For the self-employed, the entitlement data are available from the National Social Insurance Office for the Self-employed `Rijksinstituut voor de Sociale Verzekeringen der Zelfstandigen / Institut national d’assurances sociales pour travailleurs indépendants`. Note that only information on the period of entitlement is available; benefit levels are not provided.

Linkage

Standardisation

Possibility of linkage among databases
The National Register number is integrated in all administrative datasets. In this way, information available in the Data Warehouse Labour Market and Social Protection can be linked to data from the National Register `Rijksregister / Registre National`, containing additional information on personal and household characteristics. As many other administrative datasets and survey datasets contain National Register numbers, it becomes possible to link the Data Warehouse Labour Market and Social Protection data to several other datasets. In this regard, it is important to notice that the Privacy Commission has stated under what conditions survey data from Statistics Belgium can be linked to the Data Warehouse.

Data quality

Entry errors if applicable
General information on data quality of the DWH LM&SP: Data quality is high. However, given the detail of the information, data cleaning is far from straightforward and requires a thorough understanding of Belgian social security. Given the complexity of the recoding that is needed to make the data available for scientific research, errors can occur. These errors can be adjusted in collaboration with the Crossroads Bank for Social Security. Changes in legislation and registration can impact the content of the variables. Specific information related to the study of family benefits: Data on entitlements are available; data on the benefits paid out are, as of now, not available.

Breaks

Consistency of terminology or coding used during collection

Governance

Contact information
Chris Brijs
Crossroads Bank for Social Security
Willebroekkaai 38
1000 Brussels Belgium Phone: +32 2 741 83 67
Email: chris.brijs(at)ksz-bcss.fgov.be
Url: www.ksz-bcss.fgov.be/nl/bcss/nodepage/content/websites/belgium/

Timeliness, transparency
The data are available two years following collection