Risk of poverty far higher for households with children

INCOME LEVELS:THE INCOME OF households with children fell almost five times more than childless households between 2009 and 2010, new CSO figures have shown.

There was also a sharp rise in the percentage of households with children reporting “great difficulty” in making ends meet, at 19 per cent in 2010 compared with just 6 per cent in 2009.

The CSO’s report on children from the 2004 to 2010 Survey on Income and Living Conditions found that in 2010 almost a fifth of households with children were at risk of poverty.

The average weekly income of households with children fell by 8.1 per cent (by €104 to €1,184) between 2009 and 2010, while those without children fell by 2.4 per cent (by €22 to €902), the report showed. The fall in income recorded between 2009 and 2010 was due to a fall in direct income (from employment) rather than social welfare income.

However, it found that if child-related welfare allowances were removed, the risk of poverty for households with children would rise to one in three. The poverty risk would rise to two-fifths if all family allowances (eg maternity benefit, carer’s allowance) were removed.

The report also found that children aged between 12 and 17 were most at risk of poverty in 2010 (26 per cent).

This compared with 19.2 per cent for six- to 11-year-olds and 12 per cent for newborns to five-year-olds. In several measures used, households with children fared far worse than those without.

The risk of poverty for those living in households with children was 18.8 per cent in 2010, significantly higher than households without children (11.8 per cent). In 2010 the level of enforced deprivation (living without two or more basic items) for those living in households with children (28.2 per cent) was almost double that of those without (14.6 per cent).

More than an eighth (13.2 per cent) of households with children were unable to afford heating at some stage in 2010, compared with 7 per cent in 2007.

Children’s charity Barnardos said the figures showed the value of social welfare supports in protecting families from poverty.

Director of Social Justice Ireland Dr Seán Healy described the levels of child poverty as “profoundly disturbing”.