Reconfiguring the Measurement of Deprivation and Consistent Poverty in Ireland
10/04/2006
Reconfiguring the Measurement of Deprivation and Consistent Poverty in Ireland
By Bertrand Maître, Brian Nolan and Christopher T. Whelan (ESRI)
Embargo: Monday 10 April 2006 at 12.00 noon.
The measure of "consistent" poverty developed at the Economic and Social Research Institute has been used extensively in measuring the extent of poverty in Ireland and understanding what produces it. This study re-assesses how this measure is constructed in the light of current living standards and expectations, using data from the Central Statistics Office's new EU-SILC survey.
A new basic deprivation measure using eleven indicators available in the new survey is developed and analysed, replacing the previous eight-item index. The new set of items provides a more comprehensive coverage of exclusion from family and social life. This measure of basic deprivation can then be combined with a low-income threshold to produce the consistent poverty measure. In doing so the analysis supports the use of a threshold of 2 or more on the basic deprivation index, rather than the threshold of 1 used with the original index. About 8-10 per cent of the population are then measured as being in consistent poverty in 2003.
This is similar to the level of consistent poverty shown by the "old" measure, but those identified as consistently poor are now more sharply differentiated from others. Those most at risk are single adults with children, households with a large number of children, those lacking educational qualification, and the unemployed and ill/disabled. While those depending on social transfers make up a large proportion of the consistently poor, a significant minority of poor individuals are in households where the household head is in work.
With the reconfigured consistent poverty measure, the study then proposes a set of tiered poverty reduction targets:
A. Priority should be given to ensuring that those on low incomes see their real incomes rise and their deprivation levels fall;
B. Next, using a set of deprivation indicators which changes in line with societal views about what is adequate, the consistent poverty measure should decline;
C. Finally, the proportion of the population falling below relative income poverty lines should be declining.
Poverty targets framed in this fashion, with the re-configured basic deprivation and consistent poverty measures at their core, would provide a sound basis for assessing progress in tackling poverty in Ireland through the National Anti-Poverty Strategy.
Members of the Media are invited to attend the launch of this publication by the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Seámus Brennan T.D., on Monday 10 April 2006
at 12.00 noon at the ESRI.