Background to the Research

• Research on child poverty in NI has focused on measuring child poverty using point in time methods and distinctions have not been made in terms of length of time in poverty. Existing analyses and data do not clarify how long children in NI remain in poverty and whether it is has a long-term impact for a few children or if it is a relatively mobile phenomenon.
• The introduction of the NIHPS in 2001 has enabled the duration and nature of child poverty in NI to be studied. The NIHPS is a panel survey where the same respondents are followed up each year.
  

Research Approach

• This research update used net income data from the first four waves of the NIHPS to examine persistent child poverty in NI, which was defined as being poor three years in a four year period.
• The number of children who were living in a responding NIHPS household throughout the four years of the survey and whose families provided full financial information in all four years was 550.
  

Main Findings

• The proportions of children not in poverty were 73% in 2001, 66% in 2002, and 72% in 2003 and 2004. The proportion of children in non-severe poverty were 18%, 25%, 17% and 20%, and in severe poverty were 9% in 2001 and 2002, 11% in 2003 and 8% in 2004.
• 52% of all children were not in poverty in any of the four years and 10% of children were in poverty in all four years of the survey.
• When recoded into 3 groups, 52% of all children had not experienced poverty in any of the 4 years, 27% were in short-term poverty and 21% were in persistent poverty.
• Four out of five children who had experienced persistent poverty lived in households that had no workers in Wave 1, compared to one third of those who had experienced short-term poverty and only 4% of children who had not experienced any poverty in the four years. 53% of those in persistent poverty had no workers in their family throughout the four years. Children living in short-term poverty were more likely than their peers who were in persistent poverty to have 2 or more workers and to have experienced transitions between one and two or more workers. However, children in persistent poverty were most likely to have experienced transitions between having workers in the household and having no workers.
• Children living in lone parent families were more likely to be in poverty than those living in couple households. 87% of children not in poverty in any of the years lived with two parents, compared with 65% of children who had experienced short-term poverty and 34% of children in persistent poverty. 72% of children in persistent and severe poverty lived with a lone parent.
• Most children lived in households that remained stable over the four years, while 11% experienced transitions between lone parent and couple households. Transitions in household type were experienced by 18% of those in persistent poverty, 15% of those in short-term poverty and 6% of those in no poverty.
• 6% of children not in poverty, 11% of those in short-term poverty and 17% of those in persistent poverty lived in households in which at least one elderly or disabled person was being cared for. Children living in persistent and severe poverty were most likely to have someone in the house who was elderly or disabled and who needed care (23%).
• Children living in households that had been in poverty were more likely to have experienced changes in their main source of income over the four years. 13% of children living in short-term poverty had families who experienced 2 or more transitions between benefits and work as their main source of income during the four year period.
• 81% of children whose families had experienced no poverty in any of the years lived in owner-occupied accommodation compared with 46% of those in short-term poverty and only 19% of children who had been in persistent poverty, 4 in 5 of whom lived in rented properties.
• Children who were in persistent poverty were more likely to live in households with four or more children (29%) than those who lived in short-term poverty (15%) or no poverty (7%). In contrast, 27% of those who had not experienced any poverty over the four years lived in households with only one child compared with 15% of children who lived in persistent poverty.
• Children in short-term poverty (19%) were more likely to have experienced an increase in the number of children living in their household than those in either persistent poverty (13%) or not in poverty (12%).
• Mothers had significantly higher GHQ12 scores than fathers and the parents of children who were in poverty were significantly more likely to have higher GHQ12 scores - and therefore poorer mental health and wellbeing - than the parents of children who were not in poverty. Mothers of children who were in persistent poverty had the highest mean score of all.
  

Conclusions

• NI is concluded to have double the proportion of children living in persistent poverty than Britain. The impact for these children is likely to be much more serious than for those children who temporarily experience poverty.
• Those policies focused on helping families exit poverty need to ensure that they remain out of poverty and that such an exit is sustainable. As persistent and recurrent poverty is likely to be particularly detrimental to children's wellbeing, government policies need to focus more on the particular experiences of these children and their families.
• The authors end with recommendations: policies should be tailored to the particular circumstances of those living in persistent poverty; greater knowledge is needed about the barriers to families taking up opportunities and the extent of lack of such opportunities; further investigation of the particular needs of adults in persistent poverty with caring responsibilities; and longitudinal qualitative research to further understand the nature of persistent poverty, poverty resilience and coping strategies.