Unemployment is included in this index because of the risk it implies of social exclusion and detachment from the lifestyle and the prevailing culture of society (Atkinson and others, 2002). Recent practice in the multidimensional measurement of poverty in the region has been to consider lack of access to social protection —in terms of health insurance coverage, affiliation to social protection schemes and receipt of pensions— as deprivation (see CONEVAL, 2010, Angulo Pardo Diaz and Finch, 2013, ECLAC, 2013). Households in which no member has any form of contributory insurance (based on mandatory or voluntary contributions from individuals) are considered to be deprived in respect of social protection. This cut-off is used for both social security and health, and has the advantage of using a constant delimiting criterion across the different indicators of social protection. Receipt of a non-contribution-based pension (such as a solidarity-based or basic pension) is thus insufficient to prevent an individual being considered deprived in respect of social security. This definition was adopted on the basis that, to a greater or lesser degree, fees in the health systems of all of the countries covered by this indicator are adjusted for purchasing power.