Overcoming child poverty
Statistics show that the number of children in poverty in Northern Ireland has fallen slightly but targets are unlikely to be met. Emma Blee reports.
A report published in November suggests that while rates of child poverty are falling in Northern Ireland, it is unlikely that the Executive will reach its targets of significantly reducing child poverty by 2020.
The national target under the legislation, agreed by the devolved administrations, is to have fewer than 10 per cent of children living in relative poverty and no more than 5 per cent in absolute poverty by the year 2020.
OFMDFM’s Lifetime Opportunities Monitoring Framework suggests that the number of children in Northern Ireland experiencing relative income poverty fell from 135,000 in 1998-1999 to 107,500 in 2008-2009. While the overall trend in Northern Ireland, the Republic and the UK has been downwards, the province’s relative poverty rate has slightly increased in the last two years.
Disappointing
Goretti Horgan, who lectures in social policy at the University of Ulster, says that while child poverty rates have fallen, the figures are disappointing “since this was the time when the economy in Northern Ireland was [the] fastest growing of any region of the UK”.
Horgan believes that the main problem is that most of the jobs created during the period were low-paid jobs which did not lift families out of relative income poverty.
Through her research, Horgan has found that more than one in five children and young people in Northern Ireland live in persistent poverty, which is twice the proportion of those living in Britain. She states that over half of those children are living in families where are least one parent is in employment, suggesting that the real problem is low pay.
The Lifetime Opportunities report also shows that absolute poverty in Northern Ireland fell by 12 per cent between 1998-1999 and 2008-2009. It highlights that Northern Irish and Scottish absolute poverty rates have fallen whilst that in England remained static and the rate in Wales actually rose by 2 per cent.
Horgan says it is unfortunate that 74,600 children remain in absolute poverty but that the figures do represent reality. “Most of the children captured in this measure will be living in households dependent on benefits,” she explains.
“But while benefits have risen in line with inflation, general living standards and income levels have risen much quicker. So, those families and children are being left behind; their family’s income is the same as it was in 1998-1999.”
Fergus Cooper, Save the Children’s head in Northern Ireland, says that the causes of poverty are “complex and no one government department can address the issue on its own”.
“There is a pressing need for inter- departmental agreement and co-operation on progressive measures targeting those in poverty,” he comments. “Measures that will impact on child poverty include making work pay, access to affordable childcare, job creation, improving educational outcomes for the poorest children and renewing housing stock to tackle fuel poverty.” Cooper adds that early intervention and ‘invest to save’ need to be the underlying principles of a new child poverty strategy for Northern Ireland.
Despite budget cuts, Horgan says the state has a responsibility to “ensure that families have an income adequate to allow their children to grown up safe, healthy and to have the same opportunity to get an education and to get on in life, as other children”.
Eradicating poverty
Cooper argues though, that the worst excesses of child poverty can be alleviated by the parent in most circumstances because of state benefits, child tax credits and child benefit.
However, Horgan believes that there are many parents living in Northern Ireland who cannot find work that pays enough to give their children everything they need. “Whether they are living on benefits or are working in a minimum wage job, it is hard to see how parents could do anything to make what little they have go further.” She calculates that a 40-hour week at £5.65 an hour pays £226 gross, and says that even with tax credits on top of that, it is not enough to bring up a family.
On the other hand, a lone parent with two children on benefits will receive £189 a week to meet all of their own, as well as their children’s needs. Horgan thinks “it is impossible to see how any amount of budgeting could make those ends meet”.
Asked if it is possible to completely eradicate child poverty in Northern Ireland, Cooper says that it would be difficult as circumstances can change so quickly through the loss of employment, critical illness or relationship breakdown.
He suggests a change of strategy could be the way forward: “The current Northern Ireland level of general child poverty is 25 per cent, persistent poverty is 20 per cent and severe poverty is just over 10 per cent. Some Scandinavian countries have already achieved 5 to 10 per cent child poverty targets.
“Child poverty in Northern Ireland will not be ended by paper strategies. We need political conviction, leadership and joint resources to make it happen.”
Child poverty defined
Relative poverty
Relative income poverty is defined as the proportion of children living in a household whose income is less than 60 per cent of UK median household income before housing costs are deducted from the net household income.
Absolute poverty
A child is living in absolute income poverty if the household in which they live has an income level less than the base year income poverty level after adjustments for the effects of inflation.
