The data on expenditure under the various social protection schemes are drawn up according to the ESSPROS (European System of integrated Social Protection Statistics) Manual issued by Eurostat. Generally, the objectives of ESSPROS are to provide a comprehensive, realistic and coherent description of social protection which: (i) covers social benefits and their financing; (ii) is geared towards international comparability; and (iii) is completely harmonised with other statistics, particularly the National Accounts, in its main concepts. Spatial ESSPROS data is showed as per capita. The total benefits expenditure obtained from the SABS database does not match that with the Treasury's Departmental Accounting System (DAS) as the latter includes welfare payments which are excluded from the SABS database. The data source used to compile the beneficiaries data is the System for the Administration of Social Benefits (SABS) database held by the Department of Social Security. Beneficiaries are grouped according to their ID card number. If a person received a particular benefit more than once in a calendar year, the records show one beneficiary. Beneficiaries obtaining more than one benefit under the same function are counted once. Beneficiaries living abroad are not included in the data.
