Study finds increase in deprivation of children not defined as income poor

There has been an increase in the amount of children who are deprived but not income poor, according to a new study.

In Ireland, the official measure of poverty is consistent poverty, which describes a person who is both materially deprived and “at risk of poverty”, or “Arop”.

Deprivation is defined as the enforced lack of two or more of 11 items, including heating a home or eating protein once every two days.

Arop is defined as having disposable income that is below 60% of the median equivalised income for Ireland, also termed income poverty.

However, there are a considerable amount of vulnerable children who are deprived but not Arop.

An analysis of child poverty by the Economic and Social Research Institute found that close to one in five children (17%) were deprived but not at risk of poverty in 2023, increasing from 12% in 2022.

Over the same year there was a decline in consistent poverty, from 7% to 5% of children.

Over a longer timeframe, the proportion of children defined as deprived but not income poor was decreasing from 2004 until the financial crash in 2008, before rising steadily to a peak during the austerity period between 2010 to 2015.

The number of children living in consistent poverty also peaked in the austerity period.

Over half of children that are deprived but not Arop live in households with incomes just above the poverty line – meaning their incomes are between 60% and 80% of median income.

The authors say that raising the cut-off to define poverty may allow more children to be classified as consistently poor, and support better targeted measures.

An additional explanation for being materially deprived but not Arop is that these households are faced with additional housing costs or needs that are not captured in the equivalised income measure.

Adjusting the measure of income poverty for housing costs almost doubles the number of children categorised as consistently poor, while decreasing the number defined as deprived not Arop, from 14% to 8.6%.

“This shows that a significant number of this cohort is facing high housing costs, preventing them from translating their relatively higher income into an adequate standard of living,” the report states.

The authors argue that the findings also underline the importance of removing cliff edges in welfare support.

Policies such as the National Childcare Scheme, the One Parent Family Payment and other welfare payments offer a tapered system of support which gradually reduces the level of support.

The study shows that the tapering off should be very modest in the 60-80% median income bracket as these households face an elevated deprivation risk.

However, there remain some cliff edges in the system, which not only adversely affect those just above the cut-off but also negatively influence work incentives.

On the debate around effectiveness of universal support such as child benefit, free GP care for children under old, free school meals and schoolbooks, the authors state that some studies show that countries that have a greater share of universal child benefits show higher levels of child poverty reduction.

The authors also note that the deadline for achieving a child poverty target originally set in 2016 was extended from 2020 to 2025 and revised targets are overdue.