ONE IN five households was in arrears on payments such as mortgages, rent, utility bills and credit cards last year, new figures from the Central Statistics Office show.
The Survey on Income and Living Conditions 2008 found that 20.3 per cent of households were in arrears on at least one of five items. Almost 8 per cent of households had arrears of two or more types last year.
Households on lower incomes were more likely to report arrears on mortgage, rent or utility bills, while those on higher incomes were more likely to have arrears on credit cards and overdrafts.
More than half of households where people were in consistent poverty reported at least one type of arrears. To be in consistent poverty, income must be less than 60 per cent of the national average income and households must be experiencing the deprivation of at least two of 11 items.
They include being unable to keep the house warm, being unable to afford meat, fish or chicken every second day or being unable to afford a warm, waterproof coat.
Nearly 22 per cent of people in consistent poverty had mortgage or rent arrears last year. Three-quarters of people said they had experienced none of the 11 forms of deprivation last year.
Lone-parent households reported the highest levels of deprivation, with 55 per cent of those households saying that they experienced one or more items of deprivation.
The survey did not see a major shift in the proportion of people experiencing deprivation between 2007 and last year. However, there was one exception – an increase of almost 3 per cent (to 11.1 per cent) in the number of people saying they were unable to afford a morning, afternoon or evening out in the previous fortnight.
The most commonly reported deprivation continued to be the inability to afford to replace worn- out furniture. The survey found that the average disposable household income increased by 2.2 per cent to €49,043 last year when compared with 2007.
It highlights the importance of social welfare and other State benefits, with these payments accounting for more than 22 per cent of household income last year.
For the 10 per cent of households in the lowest income bracket, State benefits accounted for 88 per cent of the gross household income while they accounted for just 7 per cent of income for the 10 per cent of households with the highest earnings.
The figures also show that one in seven people was at risk of poverty in 2008, down from one in six in 2007. People deemed to be at risk of poverty have incomes of less than 60 per cent of the national average.
Children continued to be the category most at risk of poverty, while people aged 75 and over had the lowest risk of any age group.
A regional breakdown shows that the midland region continued to report the lowest average disposable income last year, at €37,379, compared with the Dublin region which had the highest average income, at €61,724.
The midland region also continued to be the region most at risk of poverty last year, followed by the midwest. The biggest fall in the at risk of poverty rate was recorded for people in the Border region.
The survey found that the biggest increase in income when special savings incentive accounts (SSIA) funds were included, was for people with an education level of a third-level degree or more.
Comparable data for the rest of the EU is not available yet, but the survey shows that Ireland’s at risk of poverty rate was above the EU average in 2007. The average at risk of poverty rate for the EU was 16 per cent, compared with 18 per cent for Ireland.
Fr Seán Healy, director of Social Justice Ireland, said the figures showed that, without social welfare payments, 43 per cent of our population would be in poverty.
“These figures show clearly that if Government were to reduce welfare rates in budget 2010, then poverty would increase and the most vulnerable in Irish society would suffer unnecessarily.”
Irish Rural Link said the figures exposed the extent of deprivation in rural areas. Its chief executive Séamus Boland said the dependence of the rural economy on construction and traditional manufacturing meant that the figures for this year were likely to be even more stark.
2008 At A Glance
- Average disposable household income was €49,043 a year or €940 a week, an increase of 2.2 per cent from 2007.
- Social welfare and other State benefits comprised 22.3 per cent of household income.
- 20.3 per cent of households had at least one type of arrears and 7.7 per cent of households had arrears of two or more types.
- Over one-fifth of households in consistent poverty had mortgage or rent arrears and more than two-fifths had utility bill arrears.
- One in seven or 14.4 per of people were at risk of poverty, a decrease of 2.1 per cent since 2007.
- The at risk of poverty rate was highest among people in lone-parent households (36.4 per cent)
- One quarter of individuals experienced some form of enforced deprivation, such as going without heat or being unable to afford a warm, waterproof coat.
Source: Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) in Ireland 2008. See www.cso.ie for the full report.
