Elatusvahendite

Elatusvahendid is Estonian for the means of subsistence, referring to the resources available to an individual or household to meet basic needs such as food, shelter, clothing, and health care. The concept covers more than just cash income and includes a range of material resources that can be mobilized for living, including in-kind support, savings, and potential future earnings. In discussions of living standards, elatusvahendid are used to describe how much a person or family can rely on to maintain a given standard of living.

Typical components include earned income (sissetulek), capital income (interest, rents), social transfers (pensions, unemployment benefits, family benefits), housing subsidies, and other forms of in-kind assistance. Savings, investments, inheritances, and gifts can also contribute to elatusvahendid when they affect present or near-term subsistence. Liabilities or debt are not themselves elatusvahendid, but they can influence the effective availability of resources for daily living.

In research and policy, elatusvahendid are used to assess material well-being, poverty, and deprivation by comparing resources against the cost of basic needs. They inform decisions in social welfare, tax and benefit policies, and sometimes in family law and financial planning where the level of available resources affects obligations or entitlements.

Etymology: the term combines elatus (subsistence) and vahendid (means or resources). In Estonian discourse, elatusvahendid is a standard descriptor for the set of resources an individual or household can draw on to support living.