Showing posts with label poverty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poverty. Show all posts
Matt TreacyAn ESRI report published today examines the persistence of poverty among families with children. The report, The Dynamics of Child Poverty: Evidence from the Growing Up in Ireland Survey, is based on thousands of families in two cohorts of those with children aged 0 – 9 years in 1998 and 9 – 18 in 2008.


They measure Economic Vulnerability along a range of factors. The surveys found that 5% of families with young children were always Economically Vulnerable, with 22% temporarily so. The main predictors of this are single parent households, low maternal education, and employment status.


The type of household is the most important predictor. Families where one partner has left the household are between two and a half times, and three and a half times more likely to be economically vulnerable.

Another significant factor is that vulnerability is more likely to increase where a new partner arrives into a household. The report describes closeness of family ties as a positive, or rather not a negative.

One of the conclusions is pretty obvious: Losing one’s job increase the likelihood of poverty. Which leads to the again pretty straightforward solution which is to “prevent unemployment and to support employment.”

The ESRI stress that all of the data gathered is pre Covid, but that focus needs to be on the “likely consequences of the current pandemic for children through parental unemployment.” Which of course is something that has greatly increased as a consequence of the lockdown.

The report points to the need to retain and even increase social welfare supports to offset that impact. This is valid as an immediate and even necessary response to the problems created by low income. However, it also underlines the fact that long-term and even life-long welfare dependency does not end poverty.

They do at several points question whether the removal of increased child benefit for the third and additional child was a good thing, and suggest that perhaps this is something that might be re-assessed.

Evidence from some other European states would indicate that pro family economic policy is indeed effective, if properly implemented as a positive incentive, rather than just another means to perpetuate rather than ameliorate underlying factors.

The lack of effectiveness of long-term welfare dependency has been shown previously in Ireland, and is a constant factor in studies from other countries which have a high and growing level of single parent, mostly maternal, households where nobody works.

The report references the higher level of persistent economic vulnerability among certain ethnic groups, but that has more to do with the type of households and the unemployability of large numbers of people, than any specific ethnic factor.

There are many ethnic groups in Ireland who are not persistently vulnerable because they have a culture of work and family that the report recognises or implies are the most significant factors in avoiding economic vulnerability.

The comparative figures on child poverty within the EU 28 (including the UK in the period under review) would perhaps support the argument that Ireland performed better than the EU average: with less child income poverty in the UK, France and even Sweden.

All of these countries, of course, have predicted the trajectory of demographic change that is now taking place here – with shrinking and increasingly fractured families driving those trends.

On the other hand, the best scores in relation to child poverty were from Denmark, Czechia, Poland, Hungary and Germany, all of which perform much better than the EU average, despite the fact that the former socialist states began from a much worse comparative position in the 1990s.

The report believes that child poverty here will disimprove to close to the EU average even in the event of a post-Covid recovery, and will get much worse in the absence of an economic bounce.

Even with that bounce, the report’s own findings indicate that the type of households currently stuck in persistent or transient economic vulnerability are those by far less likely to take advantage of any growth in employment.

The factors that have inhibited their parent or parents or new guardians will continue to inhibit the children who will remain stuck in a cycle of negatives identified as lower school attendance, illnesses, early use of alcohol and nicotine, poor educational outcomes and poorer socialization.

Matt Treacy has published a number of books including histories of 
the Republican Movement and of the Communist Party of Ireland.  

Single-Parent Families Up To 3.5 Times More Likely To Be Economically Vulnerable ➖ ESRI

In an interview with Kevin Magee of the Derry News, an independent Republican who helps to manage a local welfare advice charity in the city, Rónán Moyne, describes it as he sees it. 

In Derry and Strabane, Covid-19, and Brexit aside, levels of poverty are and have been increasing steadily. Cuts to welfare spending, paltry benefits, stagnation of wages, lack of employment, insecure employment, a low wage economy, higher inflation, increases in rent and lack of housing or affordable housing is taking its toll.



People we help routinely feel shame and suffer a loss of dignity when they find themselves in circumstances that are often through no fault of their own. This is fed by public policy and tabloid media who peddle the view that people are personally responsible for the circumstances in which they find themselves.

Hunger has been normalised; food banks pepper the landscape. It is not good enough that hunger is now an accepted part of an everyday living experience. Food is purchased by government departments, to be given to those in food poverty. But it is not a scarcity of food that is the problem, it is a lack of basic income to afford to purchase it, and to live with dignity and wellbeing.

Systems are propped up that make poor people poorer and withdraw necessary income from those who most need it. There is untold damage to our society as a result. Children are denied participation in everyday activities with their peers due to their poverty. Things must change.

As a backdrop, the news is filled with talk of a never-ending peace process. I have seen no peace for the poor or the working class. The violence of poverty is devastating. There has been many a career made from processing peace yet very few of the vulnerable in our society have experienced a material improvement in their circumstances.

Brexit looms large and there are murmurings of a referendum on Irish Unity. A ‘new agreed island’ is the softened or acceptable language. Agreed by who? The British? The established political class? An aspiring elite in civic society? The financiers and the banks? Most likely all of them. But what of the ordinary man and woman? Will they be allowed to sit in assembly to self-determine their future, and that of generations thereafter?

In this new phase or discussion, the debate is controlled. Let no one talk of ‘The Republic’. They fear to speak of Easter Week. God forbid that the new dawn would be run in the interests of ordinary people.

⏩An edited version of this interview appeared in the Derry News on 21st December 2020

Never-Ending Peace Process Has Utterly Failed The Poor And Hungry

Huffington PostTory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg has said Unicef “should be ashamed of itself” for pledging £25,000 to feed hungry children in the UK, accusing the UN agency of “playing politics”. 
 
It emerged on Wednesday that – for the first time in its 70-year history – Unicef had launched a domestic emergency response in a bid to help feed hungry children affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

It has pledged £25,000 to help send breakfast boxes over the school Christmas holidays to 1,800 families in south London struggling as a result of the pandemic.

The agency said the outbreak of Covid-19 was the most urgent crisis affecting children since the Second World War.

But when Rees-Mogg – who is the leader of the House of Commons – was asked about this by Labour’s Zarah Sultana on Thursday morning, he hit out at Unicef.

Sultana, who is the MP for Coventry South, said: “For the first time ever, Unicef, the UN agency responsible for providing humanitarian aid to children, is having to feed working-class kids in the UK.

Continue reading @ Huffington Post.

Jacob Rees-Mogg Says Unicef 'Should Be Ashamed Of Itself' For Feeding Hungry Children

 
UnHerd ✒ Location and status are still woefully intertwined in today’s Britain. 

James Kirkup 

 Inequality is arguably the most contentious issue of our time, alienating citizens from governments as well as from one another. The public debates place too much emphasis on disparities in income, to the exclusion of equally important forms of inequality. In this week’s series, our contributors explore some of the other inequalities tearing our society apart.

Among the vast, awful canon of positive-thinking, self-help slogans and truisms, there is a quote attributed to Ella Fitzgerald: “It isn’t where you came from, it’s where you’re going that counts.”

That sounds nice, but it’s not really true, especially in Britain. Where you come from has a huge influence over where you end up, physically and economically. Grow up poor in the wrong place and you’re not just more likely to live poor and die poor – you’ll die sooner too. People in the poorest places die a decade or more before people in rich places.

The unusually big and largely unjustifiable differences between places in the UK should be a much bigger part of the debate about inequality.

Continue reading @ UnHerd.

How The Poor Are Kept In Their Place

Irish Times ✈  Charity boss says needs are growing but pandemic has made society more empathetic.
Jennifer O'Connell

“Poverty isn’t always about money. Poverty is also about loneliness and lack of connection,” says Rose McGowan, incoming president of the Society of St Vincent de Paul (SVP), and only the second female one in its 176-year history.

In that time, the charity has survived the challenges of a famine, a civil war, the War of Independence, world wars and several recessions. But the Covid-19 pandemic may be its most significant yet. “Once again, the most vulnerable people are the ones who are struggling most,” says McGowan.

“It’s about your underlying health. It’s about where you live. It’s about whether you have that spare cash” when you were already on the margins. Up to July, the society was taking 15,000 calls for help every month, many from people who had lost their jobs and needed help with rent and utility bills.

Lone parents – half of whom were already experiencing deprivation before Covid – have been particularly hard hit, says McGowan. The moratorium on rent evictions which expired in August, and was replaced by new rental laws that mean landlords must give 90 days’ notice, bought some time for people in vulnerable situations, but it has also left many with mounting arrears. “The children are at home, so they’re eating more. You’re heating the house all day. If you’ve no childcare, you can’t work.”

Continue reading @ Irish Times.

Rose McGowan, President SVP ➖ ‘The Only Criteria For Help Is Need’

An Appeal from SVP ahead of tomorrow's general election.


By Nessan Vaughan
Ask your local candidates if they will commit to invest in measures to end poverty in the 33rd Dáil 

Dear Friend,

As an organisation that has been providing supports to households in need for over 175 years, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul wants the next Dáil to take decisive action so we can see an end to poverty once and for all. Investing in a more just, compassionate and equal society will reap benefits in the long term, for individuals, families, communities and our wider society.

The National Social Justice Committee have identified 5 key areas that we want to see in the next Programme for Government which includes making poverty reduction targets legally binding, increasing investment in social and affordable housing, providing genuinely free primary and secondary education, enhancing income supports and implementing measures to tackle energy and transport poverty. You can find more information on SVP’s Election Priorities by clicking on the image above.

We have eight questions which we are asking you to put to candidates over the next two weeks of canvassing. Asking these questions will help inform you about the policies and priorities of the candidates, but it will also send a clear message back to party leaders about SVP priorities on the doorstep.

Suggested Questions for Election 2020 Candidates
If elected, how will you improve things for the people SVP supports?
What specifically will you do to reduce poverty?
How will you ensure that our social protection system works better to so everyone has an adequate income to meet their basic needs?
How will your party address the issue of in-work poverty?
What measures would you put in place to help people who cannot adequately heat their homes?
How do you intend to tackle the cost of accessing education at preschool, primary, second and third level?
How will your party end the housing and homelessness crisis?
How will your party address the climate emergency and protect those on the lowest incomes?

We would greatly appreciate it if you could show your support and share our #NoPoverty messages on your own social media accounts with your family and friends - specifically posts with SVP #NoPoverty Priorities and Questions to Ask Candidates canvasing in your area. This will help us spread the word and motivate others to think about Poverty in Ireland when choosing their candidate.

We are not recommending which candidates you should vote for but we do recommend that you use your vote to make an end to poverty a priority.

Yours sincerely,


Nessan Vaughan
Chair of the National Social Justice Committee

Make An End To Poverty A Priority In GE2020

From the The Irish Times the Charity that wants would-be TDs to engage with the marginalised and take stand against racism.

By Patsy McGarry

The Society of St Vincent de Paul (SVP) has called on all general election candidates to agree that the next Dáil and Seanad will be committed to eliminating poverty in Ireland.  

The Society of St Vincent de Paul (SVP) has called on all general election candidates to agree that the next Dáil and Seanad will be committed to eliminating poverty in Ireland.

The charity is seeking an assurance that the next government will follow the example of the Canadian, Scottish and New Zealand governments by introducing a poverty reduction act, which would make the UN Sustainable Development Goal of eliminating poverty by 2030 legally binding.

It said the next Dáil should commit to eliminating child poverty within five years and to reducing consistent poverty to 2 per cent or less by 2025.

In its ‘Election 2020 Priorities’ document, the SVP also calls for a housing strategy “which seeks to meet 70 per cent of all housing needs through built local authority or approved housing body units by 2030” and a national affordable “cost rental” option for lower income households.

Continue reading @ The Irish Times.

SVP Urges Election Candidates To Commit To Eliminating Poverty



A fifth of children are at risk of poverty, either because their parents are on welfare, which is inadequate, or are working, but paid too little, writes Seán Healy.


That such a large proportion of our children are living below the poverty line has major implications for the education system, for the success of these children within it, for their job prospects in the future, and for Ireland’s economic potential in the long-term.

One in six people in Ireland lives on an income below the poverty line. Based on the latest CSO data, that’s 760,000 people.

In 2009, 14.1% of the population was classified as poor. Since then, the rate has increased, although it has slowed in recent years, because of an increase in core welfare payments.

If we are to develop an effective anti-poverty policy, we must know who is in poverty. The retired and the ill/disabled, although at a high risk of poverty, involve smaller numbers than adults who are employed (the working poor), people on home duties (i.e. working in the home, carers), and children/ students.

Continue reading @ the Irish Examiner.

760,000 People In Ireland Are Poor. That’s One In Six Of Us

Mick Hall contends that:


It's not a mistake or oversight when disabled and economically disadvantaged people attempt to get help from the State and it ends in tears. That is how the process is designed to work. 

Between Shit And Syphilis