Elderly poverty rate 'underestimated'

Poverty among elderly people in Ireland may be underestimated by the measures used to assess deprivation, according to a report.

The study, Measured or Missed? Poverty and Deprivation among Older People in a Changing Ireland, raised concerns about the complexity of how poverty is measured in Ireland and their effectiveness at picking up the situation of older people.

The research was prepared by Prof Mary Daly of Queen’s University for Older & Bolder, an alliance of groups that represent and work with older people.

It highlighted there were two primary measures of poverty and deprivation among the Irish population as a whole - the relative poverty measure and the consistent poverty measure.

The relative poverty measure showed that 84 per cent of older people aged 65 to 74 years and 89 per cent of those aged 75 years and over are at risk of poverty, before receiving social transfers such the state pension and other state allowances.

This compared with a consistent poverty rate of 1.7 per cent among people aged 65 to 74 and 1 per cent among those aged 75 and over.

“The low level of consistent poverty seems anomalous, given the high dependence of older people in Ireland on the state pension and other supports for the major portion of their income,” Prof Daly said.

She said the way in which poverty is measured in Ireland makes no adjustments for levels of healthiness or disability which are very pertinent for older people.

Professor Daly highlighted "the volatility of statistics" on poverty among older people.

“Poverty rates among older people shot up during the early years of the Celtic Tiger but in the last few years have come down considerably and are now actually below the average.”

“This volatility in poverty rates is itself a bit worrying from a measurement perspective. It is clear, though, that looking at the situation of older people vis-à-vis other sectors of the population, their heavy reliance on state pensions and social welfare generally to stay out of poverty is very striking.

“The fact that income poverty rates among older people have come down underlines the importance of a decent state pension as pensions play a key role in keeping older people out of poverty,” she said.

Prof Daly said that given the doubts about these indicators in assessing the level of poverty and deprivation among older people there was a need for a public debate on the subject and the development of programme of research on effective approaches to measuring poverty, deprivation and social exclusion among older people.

Patricia Conboy, Older & Bolder’s project director, said that her alliance is very concerned that major policy decisions could be made shortly by Government – for example on the future of the state pension and other income supports.

Ms Conboy said that any cut to the pension could drag a large number of people below the poverty line. She said older people have already experienced an erosion to the value of the pension because of the introduction of prescription and dental charges and the carbon levy.