Child poverty increasing
Northern Ireland’s child poverty rate is rising, and the Executive’s action plan for the child poverty strategy remains unfinished.
122,000 children in Northern Ireland are living in child poverty, according to official statistics, and parts of the province remain among those with the highest rates in the UK.
According to the DSD’s survey on households below average income for 2009-2010, 28 per cent of children were in households with incomes below 60 per cent of the UK median net household income (before housing costs), a standard measurement of relative child poverty. This represents a three per cent increase on 2008-2009. When poverty is measured by net income after housing costs (more appropriate for UK-wide comparisons), the figure is 30 per cent of children, compared with 29 per cent in the UK.
A child poverty map of the UK, produced by the End Child Poverty coalition in January, shows that 11 of the UK’s 14 electoral wards with child poverty rates of 60 per cent or higher are in Northern Ireland. Belfast (35 per cent child poverty) and Derry (36 per cent child poverty) are contained in the list of 20 local authorities with highest child poverty levels. The figures are for mid-2011 and the survey defines a child as being in poverty if their family was in receipt of out of work benefits or in receipt of in-work tax credits where their reported income is less than 60 per cent of median income.
Severe child poverty was measured by the New Policy Institute in a 2011 report commissioned by the Save the Children charity. With a definition linked to 50 per cent of median income (after housing costs) and a lack of basic necessities, the report found that 9 per cent of Northern Ireland children were suffering from severe poverty (approximately 40,000) in the three years to 2008-2009. The rate compares favourably with Wales (14 per cent) and England (13 per cent), with Scotland at the same level as here.
Child poverty is partly caused by unemployment, low wages and perceived inadequate benefits i.e. welfare and tax credits. Parental neglect can also be a factor.
Campaigners say child poverty can be reduced by providing improved benefits, including better housing, adequate income for families, making sure that work pays (e.g. increase in the minimum wage), the targeting of education investment at those from poorest backgrounds, and affordable and accessible childcare.
The New Policy Institute report stated certain groups in Northern Ireland are most at risk: being the child of single parents (over half of children in severe poverty); living in rented accommodation (63 per cent); having young parents under 25; and being a child in a workless family.
In March 2010, the then Labour Government’s Child Poverty Act became law. It set two targets for child poverty. While the initial target of limiting it to 1.7 million or less children by 2010-2011 will clearly not be met, the 2020 target is eradication. This goal, however, does not mean zero poverty. The Act aims to reduce the proportion of children in different categories as follows:
• those in relative poverty (in families with income below 60 per cent of the median) to less than 10 per cent;
• those with combined low income and material deprivation to less than 5 per cent;
• a target for those experiencing long periods of persistent poverty to be set at a later date; and
• those in absolute poverty (living below an income threshold fixed in real terms) to less than 5 per cent.
Under the Act the Executive is required to produce a child poverty strategy, which must be updated every three years. A strategy was published by OFMDFM in March 2011, but the action plan arising from it is still unfinished. Northern Ireland also has a target of eliminating severe child poverty by 2012. OFMDFM declined to comment on whether the 2012 target would be met.
Noting the expected budgetary difficulties between 2011-2015, the strategy states: “The proposed reduction in the field of welfare payments and benefit levels suggest a more severe impact here than in other parts of the UK due to higher levels of benefits uptake.” It acknowledged the need for more strategic and better targeting of resources “to where they can have the maximum impact.”
Among the priority action areas identified are:
• providing children and young people with opportunities to reach educational attainment;
• supporting young people not in education, training and employment to re-engage;
• improving health outcomes, targeting vulnerable groups;
• supporting families experiencing food poverty; and
• increasing social housing.
The child poverty action plan will be based on a ‘poverty outcomes model’ that is designed to show “which interventions will have the most significant effect in tackling child poverty,” according to the Programme for Government. It commits to linking fulfilment of Child Poverty Act commitments with the designing of area plans for the Social Investment Fund, Social Protection Fund and Childcare Fund, in 2013-2014.
In the programme’s plans for health and social care reform, the Executive promises to improve long-term outcomes for children of teenage mothers by rolling out the family nurse partnership programme beyond the first test phase to one further test site in 2013-2014.
Despite the UK Government and Executive’s plans, child poverty is rising and expected to increase across the UK. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has forecast that between 2009-2010 and 2012-2013 the number of children in absolute poverty will increase by 600,000. It has said that while the planned universal credit will reduce both absolute and relative poverty, these improvements will be offset by the Coalition’s tax and benefit changes. By 2020-2021, absolute child poverty will reach 23 per cent and relative child poverty 24 per cent, the highest levels since 2001-2002 and 1999-2000 respectively.
Following the UK Budget last March, the Institute for Fiscal Studies forecast that 2.7 million children (20.3 per cent) would be in relative income poverty and 2.8 million (21.7 per cent) would be in absolute income poverty during this financial year.
