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Northern Ireland Households Below Average Income 2010/11 Report is Published
- 06 March 2013
A report entitled "Households Below Average Income, Northern Ireland, 2010/11" containing statistics for the period April 2010 to the end of March 2011 has been published by the Department for Social Development.
Some of its key findings include:
Income distribution
- United Kingdom median household income in 2010-11 was £419 per week, Before Housing Costs and £359 per week, After Housing Costs. This meant that the most commonly used threshold to determine if someone is in relative low income, 60 per cent of median income, was £251 per week, Before Housing Costs and £215 per week, After Housing Costs. United Kingdom mean incomes were £511 per week, Before Housing Costs and £443 per week, After Housing Costs.
- Northern Ireland median household income in 2010-11 was £379 per week, Before Housing Costs and £338 per week, After Housing Costs. Northern Ireland mean incomes were £435 per week, Before Housing Costs and £392 per week, After Housing Costs.
- Overall there were increases in income across the income distribution in the period from 2002-03 to 2009-10. However, between 2009-10 and 2010-11 Northern Ireland experienced decreases across the income distribution both Before and After Housing Costs. This is consistent with the UK trends for income distribution over the same period.
Whole population
- Over half of all individuals in Northern Ireland which are part of 'workless, other inactive' families live in households which are in the bottom fifth of the income distribution.
- Nearly a third of individuals living in families classified as being 'single with children' were in poverty, Before Housing Costs. This increased to two-fifths After Housing Costs.
- Individuals living in households who owned their homes with a mortgage experienced the lowest level of poverty. Those individuals living in the social rented sector of Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) or Housing Association homes experienced the highest levels of poverty.
Children
- In 2010/11 over half of the child population in Northern Ireland lived in households with incomes in the bottom two fifths of the distribution. Approximately one-in-ten were in the top fifth.
- Children living in workless households (AHC) were eight times more likely to be in low income than those children living in households where all adults are in work.
Working-age adults
- On both the Before and After Housing Costs measures, working-age adults with children were more heavily concentrated in the bottom two fifths of the Northern Ireland income distribution than working-age adults without children.
- Working-age adults living in households with a disabled person (adult or child) and no adults in work were approximately 3 times more likely to be in poverty than those in households where at least one adult is working.
- Those working-age adults with no qualifications were over three times as likely to live in households in poverty as those with a qualification at degree level or higher.
Pensioners
- Before Housing Costs, pensioners were more concentrated in the bottom two fifths of the income distribution when compared to the whole population of Northern Ireland. However, After Housing Costs, pensioners were less concentrated in the bottom two fifths of the income distribution when compared to the NI population as a whole.
- Single pensioners living alone experienced the highest level of relative poverty of all the pensioner family types.
- Those pensioners living in NIHE/Housing Association tenure dwellings were least likely of all the tenure categories to experience relative poverty, Before Housing Costs. However it is those pensioners living in dwellings which were owned outright, After Housing Costs, which had the lowest rates of relative poverty overall.
Material Deprivation
- When children were asked the material deprivation questions about either swimming at least once a month or have friends round for tea or a snack once a fortnight, 13% of children in the bottom fifth of the income distribution lived in households which answered they would like this but could not afford this to those two questions. The percentage for all children was 7% (BHC).
- In 2010-11 nearly half of children in the bottom fifth of the income distribution (48%) lived in households which could not afford to replace worn out furniture. The compared to over a quarter of all children (28%) experiencing the same material deprivation (BHC).
- For a large proportion of the pensioner material deprivation questions, there were only small differences, if any, between the results of answers for pensioners in the bottom fifth and the results for pensioners aged 65 and over as a whole.
- Those pensioners aged over 65 with no occupational or personal pension were approximately 5 times more likely to be in material deprivation than those with some form of occupational or personal pension.
