A/HRC/4/9/Add.2 page 14 54. Social welfare benefits are available upon application and are important in alleviating poverty. However, it is likely that due to lack of information and inadequate coverage of an effective social worker system in disadvantaged areas and isolated settlements, a relatively high percentage of Roma are failing to apply for full benefits to which they are entitled. 55. Hungary’s 2004 MDG report usefully highlights the Roma’s disproportionate experience of poverty. However, a major obstacle to measuring the magnitude of poverty, discriminatory treatment and social exclusion affecting Roma is Hungary’s failure to date to generate and make available disaggregated data in fields such as education, health care, housing, and social services. Such data is essential to formulating adequate policies to confront both specific problems, and the wider situation of poverty affecting Roma. 56. According to the Government, the Hungarian Central Statistical Office is responsible for regularly collecting and publishing data on the situation of the different population groups in Hungary with respect to their income, education levels, poverty levels and other social and economic data. Reportedly under the Government’s interpretation of Hungary’s data protection law, gathering data according to ethnicity is illegal in Hungary. It is clear that if disaggregated data has been gathered by the Government it has been done on an inconsistent basis. 57. The European Union has affirmed that data protection rules apply to personal data, not to aggregate data about groups, nor data disaggregated by ethnicity or other criteria. The European Union’s social inclusion process imposes a range of requirements on Governments to produce accurate data on the situation of marginalized groups. E. Education 58. Urgent attention is required to fully address the education needs of Roma children, including ensuring access to quality education, curriculum and language issues, and the specific situation of Roma girls regarding education. Significant efforts by the Government to address segregation and discrimination are commended by the Independent Expert, however, they have to date achieved only limited impact despite high levels of funding and prioritization of this issue. 59. Hungary’s third periodic report to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (EC/12/HUN/3, para. 598) states that almost all Roma children now complete eight classes of primary school, a significant improvement over the rates of only 26 per cent and 75 per cent at the beginning of the 1970s and 1990s respectively. However, very few progress to achieve a secondary school leaving certificate. Roma are 50 times less likely to receive a college or university diploma than non-Roma and less than 1 per cent hold higher education certificates. 60. Post-communist Constitutional provisions entrenched local government authority in a number of important areas including education, creating a stumbling block for national efforts to address disparities in education between Roma and non-Roma children. To date, no Government has been able to achieve amendments to the Act on education that would wrest even limited powers from local authorities. While the national Government faces some limitations in its influence on local authorities, it is considered not to have been robust enough in its efforts to