Background to the Research

• This report was commissioned by OFMDFM Equality Directorate to assess changes in the socio-economic and demographic features of people living in low-income households in NI. The main purpose of the report is to provide information for the development of the New Targeting Social Need policy.
  

Research Approach

• The study draws on data from the CHS 1990/91 to 2001/02.
  

Main Findings

• In 1990/91-1993/4, individuals living in households without work where the head of the household was unemployed comprised 18% of those in the bottom 30%. By 1999/2000-2001/02, this had fallen to 7%.
• Though they account for only one in ten of all individuals in the population, people living in single parent families comprise one in four of those in the bottom 30% of the equivalised income distribution, an increase of 6% points since the start of the 1990s.
• The proportion of the total population living in households with no dependent children increased by three percentage points, to 44%. As a result, their share of all those in the bottom 30% of the income distribution rose from 33% to 36%.
• The risk of being in the bottom 30% of the income distribution remains highest for those aged 0-15, 39% of whom are in the bottom 30%. However, their share of all individuals in the bottom 30% fell from 34% to 30%, a drop of 4%. This is due to a comparable reduction in the population share of those aged 0-15.
• In the adult population, low income tends to be disproportionately concentrated amongst women. The CHS data confirms this trend.
• Some 55% of the population now lives in a household containing one adult with a reported long-standing illness (a rise of 9%). Of those in the bottom 30% living in households in which at least one adult has a reported long-standing illness/disability, the proportion now stands at 61% (a rise of 13%).
• Social sector tenancy has increased in significance as a 'marker' for the risk of being in a low income household. The proportion of social sector tenants living in households in the bottom 30% has risen from 56% to 64%. However, social sector tenants now account for a smaller share of all those in the bottom 30%, down from 51% to 42%. This is due to the fact that the percentage of the population living in public rented accommodation has fallen to 20%, (a drop of 8%).
• Just over half (53%) of those in the bottom 30% live in a household where the head of the household has no qualifications, compared to 66% in 1990/1-1993/4 - a fall of 13%.
• While unemployed adults still have the highest risk of being in the bottom 30%, their share of all working-age adults living in the bottom 30% has fallen from 21% to 11%.
• The concentration of children in low income households has shifted from couples without full-time work to single parent families without full-time work.
• Children in single parent families without full-time work have the highest risk of being in the bottom 30% (88%). In these families, only one in five household heads were in any work with over three in four being economically inactive.
• In the period 1999/00-2001/02, the majority of adults in pensioner families in the bottom 30% were in single pensioner families (58%) representing a fall of 10% compared with the period 1990/1-1993/94