The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has described the duty of the State to guarantee the availability of social security at least at a minimum level. In the cases when state, considering the resources at its disposal, is incapable to ensure this minimum level to all the risk groups, it should specify the groups that need special protection, and social security should be provided for these groups (see General Comment No. 19, para. 59). Several organisations, int. al. international organisations, have assessed the risk of poverty for the residents of Latvia. For example, Eurostat data of poverty risk groups due to old age for the year 2007 show that approximately 33 % from persons who are older than 65 are in the poverty risk group (see http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/spsi/docs/social_inclusion/data_overarchi ng_en.xls, accessed on 25 November 2009). Furthermore, according to the study carried out in Latvia, poverty risk among lone elderly people has increased also during the time of economic growth – from 45 % in 2005 to 69 % in 2006 and to 75 % in 2007 (see the provisional data of the Central Statistical Bureau for 2007 ”Survey of European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC)” http://www.csb.lv/csp/content/?cat=471&id=5762, accessed on 25 November 2009). Even during the time of economic growth, the funds allocated to social protection services were relatively scanty in Latvia (see Europe in Figures, Eurostat yearbook 2009, p. 256). Whereas Sweden, for example, allocated approximately 32 % from its GDP for this purpose and France – 31.5 %, this figure for Latvia is only 12.4 %. This situation is reflected in statistics concerning the inequality of income distribution, which continued to increase also in the period of economic growth and is the highest among the EU States (see Inequality of income distribution http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/table.do?tab=table&init=1&plugin=1&language =en&pcode=tsdsc260, accessed on 1 December 2009). In order to ascertain the minimum level of social security in the specific case, the State has to make a choice from several methods used by different international organisations. Although these methods are not legally binding, their principles are of markedly recommendable nature, sufficiently authoritative to be able to advice the State to choose the optimum model of action for solving a specific problem. These 63