Spiralling rents and mortgage costs pushing more into poverty, study finds

Spiralling housing costs are pushing increasing numbers of people into poverty, with lone parents, disabled people and renters dependent on housing supports the worst affected, a report published on Monday warns.

Drawing on data published this month by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) – which now calculates the impact of rent and mortgage repayments on poverty rates – the equality think tank Social Justice Ireland (SJI) says almost 20 per cent of people are in poverty after these costs are met.

“The overall poverty rate in Ireland increases from 11.6 per cent before housing costs are included to 19 per cent after housing costs are counted – an increase of almost 371,000 people,” it says in its report, Housing Costs and Poverty 2022.

“This means that the real number of people in poverty is 952,185 – almost one in five of the total population.”

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Poverty is defined by the CSO as living on an income less than 60 per cent of the median national income, after taxes and benefits have been factored in. The median income last year was €25,264 annually, or €485.85 a week. The 60 per cent poverty line, therefore, was €291.51 a week.

While single people under 65 and living alone were the households with the highest poverty rates (28.8 per cent) before housing costs were considered, their rates rose to 41.7 per cent when housing costs were deducted.

For single-parent households, however, housing costs increased their poverty rate from 22.8 per cent to 51 per cent.

Disabled people, or those with long-term illnesses, had a rate of 39.1 per cent before housing costs, and 53.8 per cent after rent or mortgage repayments were deducted.

“The deprivation rate of renters is more than five times that of owner occupiers [32 per cent compared with 6.1 per cent] and renters account for more than two-thirds of all people in deprivation,” says the report.

“Overall, 19.8 per cent of people in rented accommodation, some 296,691 people, are at risk of poverty before rent payments are taken into account.” People in council housing had a pre-rent poverty rate of 39.6 per cent last year, but a post-rent rate of 50.5 per cent.

Those in the private-rented sector, supported with benefits such as the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP), had a pre-rent poverty rate of 10.9 per cent increasing significantly to 59.1 per cent after rent was deducted. This suggests a high proportion of these renters are having to pay “top-ups” to landlords in addition to the differential rents they pay to their local authorities, says SJI.

“Far from supporting families out of poverty, housing subsidies are so inadequate as to be allowing greater numbers into it,” said Colette Bennett, economic and social analyst with the think tank. “The poverty risk of households in receipt of housing subsidies continues to be the highest of all occupancy types.

“It is essential that Government increase spending on actually building social homes instead of relying on and subsidising a dysfunctional private rented sector,” she said.