By Sarah Donoghue
According to statistics published by the CSO, poverty rates amongst disabled people in Ireland are twice as high as able bodied people.
Every year the Central Statistics Office conducts a survey on income and living conditions (SILC). The newest figures relieve a worrying connection between poverty rates and health status.
The survey measured those living in consistent poverty, at risk of poverty and living in enforced deprivation. Enforced deprivation occurs when a household meets at least 2 of the 11 national deprivation criteria laid out by the CSO. The 11 criteria include being unable to afford basic needs like adequately heating your house, properly fitting shoes and a warm winter coat; but it also includes being able to afford basic wants like a roast once a week, a morning, afternoon or evening out once every two weeks and buying presents for friends or family once a year. Enforced deprivation describes people who may not be living in consistent poverty, but their living standards are still impacted by their income. Risk of poverty includes people whose income is lower than 60% of the national median income.
The CSO also measured these 3 criteria based on whether or not the respondent has a chronic illness, whether they are limited in activity, and general health status.
Twice as many individuals with severely limited activity were living in enforced deprivation at 32%, compared to 13% of those who are not limited in activity. 16.5% of severely limited individuals were at risk of poverty and 8.9% were living in consistent poverty. This compares to the 8.3% at risk of poverty and 2.4% living in consistent poverty of individuals without limited activity.
When it comes to health status, 41.1% of individuals in bad health and 38.9% of individuals in very bad health were living in enforced deprivation compared to 15.8% and 10.6% in good and very good health, respectively. 20.8% of people in bad health and 19.7% of people in very bad health were at risk of poverty while 9.2% of people in good health and 7.8% of people in very good health were at risk. 13.3% of those in bad health and 8.7% of those in very bad health were living in consistent poverty compared to 2.8% and 1.9% of those in good and very good health, respectively. The figures for those in bad health are consistently twice as high as those in good or very good health.
24.1% of people with a chronic illness were living in enforced deprivation compared to 13.3% of people who don’t. 12% of people with a chronic illness were at risk of poverty compared to 8.4% of people who don’t. And 5.6% of people with a chronic illness were living in consistent poverty compared to 2.3% of people who don’t.
The reports also found that households which have a member who is limited in physical ability are significantly more likely to go into arrears on household payments.
Households with a member with severely limited ability are more than 5 times more likely to go into arrears on hire purchases and loan repayments than households without a member with limited ability, at 26.5% compared to 4.7%. 10.2% of households with a member with limited ability but not severely limited also went into arrears on loan or hire purchase repayments, twice as many as households without.
12% of households with severely limited members and 11.6% of households with a member who is limited but not severely went into arrears on mortgage or rental payments. This is twice as much as the 5.6% of households with a member with limited ability.
Households with a severely limited member were 3 times as likely to go into arrears on utility bills than households without one, at 15.3% compared to 4.8%. Household with a member who is limited but not severely were twice as likely as households without one, at 10.3%.
These statistics consistently show that Irish individuals with physical disabilities or poor general health are twice and sometimes three times as likely to be living in poverty, at risk of poverty or in enforced deprivation than those without disability or good general health. It also shows that household payments can be a heavy burden on households with a member with a physical disability or poor general health as they range from twice as likely to five times, depending on the type of payments, as likely to go into arrears on household payments than households with all able bodied members.