The welfare survey defined poverty by income thresholds and categorized dependents by marital status

Evidence

Local officials carring out the questionnaires asked about the marital status (married, widowed, or in concubinage) of individuals with child dependents whose income was less than one hundred guilder per month (for those without child dependents, the threshold was set at fifty guilder). Those in “temporary” need were excluded from the survey. Age, sex, birthplace, nationality, and “social position” of one’s parents, and age at marriage of household head were to be tabulated, as well. Number, age, sex, and occupation of one’s children; employment; income; children’s schooling; “life style”; religion; health; housing conditions; schooling; knowledge of Dutch; army service and rank; “probable causes of social decline”—questions on all of these topics followed. — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 906