Republican News · Thursday 3 October 2002

Poverty is relative

BY JOANNE CORCORAN

The recently released annual report from the Combat Poverty Agency reveals that while consistent poverty in Ireland is falling, relative poverty is on the rise. The increased cost of living in Ireland means more and more people who are considered to be on 'good wages' are closer to the poverty line than some may think.

In trying to understand the extent and nature of poverty, it is often easy to get caught up in statistics, which can mask the reality of poverty. A recent study by the Vincentian Partnership for Justice examined the experience of poverty for families living on low incomes. This study found that incomes of less than €400 per week led to a risk of poverty, with the experience of poverty being most acute in households where the income was less than €160 per week.

€400 a week is roughly €21,000 a year. This is a decent wage in many people's eyes. But if you are paying a mortgage, (that is if you could afford to buy a house) or rent, have children, and are trying to keep up with the rise in food prices, ESB and other bills, it is just not enough.

Families end up spending their time trying to manage shortfalls in their income through a number of strategies. The study found this includes juggling bills, buying basic items only, limiting food intake, borrowing money from family members and in some extreme cases, borrowing from moneylenders.

More common than you think

There are a number of 'decent jobs' that pay below the amount of €21,000. On the Civil Service job page there is currently an advertisement for an experienced typist with a salary starting at €17,308. On the Jobs Ireland recruitment wage, there are advertisements for a travel agent with fluent German, salary from between €13,900 and €15,200, an accommodation organiser in one of Dublin's larger hotels starting at €14,196, a customer service representative from €15,200, an experienced florist, €15,000, a sales assistant in a camera shop with a knowledge of cameras €12,000, and a telesales agent €14,000.

It is important to realise that these are the sort of jobs that the bulk of working class people in Ireland do. There are even office jobs advertised that offer little over the €21,000 mark.

Many of these people are paid so badly that if they have one child they qualify for Family Income Supplement (FIS). For a lone parent with one child, the salary must be under €362 a week to qualify, with two children under €388 a week, and with three children under €413 a week. While FIS was introduced as a much needed boost to low paid working families it has lead to a situation where the state is now subsiding employers, enabling them to continue to pay poverty wages. And it's not just in the private sector. An experienced typist working for the Civil Service who happens to be a lone parent qualifies for Family Income Supplement, and according to the Vincentian Partnership for Justice, is living in relative poverty.

What's most disturbing about this is that civil servants, travel agents, and clerical workers are considered to be in skilled employment, have by and large, completed second and even third level education, and yet they find themselves struggling to survive.

Measuring Poverty

Two measures of poverty are officially used in Ireland. The first is consistent poverty. This is when a person has less than 60% of average disposable income (in 2000, 60% of average disposable income was €173 per week), and does not have basic items such as one substantial meal each day, a second pair of shoes or is not able to pay everyday household expenses.

In 2000, 6% of the population, or just over 200,000 people, were living in poverty. Some groups in the population have higher than average levels of poverty. Households headed by someone who is unemployed, working in the home (mainly women), or ill or disabled tend to have high poverty levels.

The information accumulated on poverty does not, however, paint the whole picture, as surveys are usually based on households. The number of women living in poverty is particularly underestimated as the data presumes that income is equally divided within households which is simply not the reality for many women. In addition, people who are known to have high levels of poverty but are not surveyed include those who are homeless, many Travellers and people living in institutions.

Relative income is a poverty measure that defines the proportion of the population falling below a certain income level. While incomes in the population generally have been growing at a fast rate during the economic boom, incomes of those at the bottom of the income distribution, such as those on social welfare, have grown at a much slower rate. Unemployment and Disability benefit, for a single person, is currently €118 a week, while the minimum wage is €249 a week.

By this measure, one fifth of the population (22%) fell below the relative income poverty line in 2000 - this amounts to more than 800,000 people, an increase from 16% in 1994.

The level of income poverty is affected by overall income distribution. Research shows that income inequality has risen sharply in the 1980s and the 1990s with Ireland having one of the highest rates of relative poverty in Europe.

Life sentence

Poverty is not just about those in developing countries. It's not just about people struggling in absolute deprivation. It's about the unequal distribution of life chances.

Relative poverty is a life sentence. For those on low incomes housekeeping expenses and food are the most costly items of expenditure. An inadequate income makes it impossible to provide a reasonably healthy diet leading to ill health, a poorer quality of life and lower life expectancy. Workers, who will find it virtually impossible to buy a house in Dublin, or in most of Ireland's cities, find themselves at the mercy of exploitative landlords, unable to plan for the future. While middle class families can subsidise their children's education through school trips to France and grinds at exam times, low-income families struggle to pay for books and uniforms. Unsurprisingly middle class kids do better in our unequal education system bagging the college places and better paid jobs.

The shameful distribution of resources and opportunities in Irish society, means that increasing numbers are trapped in a cycle of poverty while the better off reap the benefits of the economic good times and escape the cut backs pushed through in the current economic down turn. The Combat Poverty report shows that the richest 10% of the population received 24% of the budget benefits given away by Fianna Fáil and the PDs in recent years, yet the current focus is on cutbacks to basic services that will hurt the poor most and no efforts are being made to cap the massive profits being made by builders and developers or the profiteering of supermarkets and service providers.

There is no shortage of agencies providing practical solutions to tackle poverty. However their advice is falling on deaf ears. The current government seems to think that the million people living in poverty in Ireland today are an acceptable side effect of a profit driven society where corporate greed is paramount and wage increases are to be resisted at all costs.

Combat Poverty has set 2010 as the target date for the elimination of poverty. The government needs to take urgent steps to see that this happens. It can start by recognising that poverty still exists in Ireland.