everyone has a right to a place they can call home SOCIAL POLICY policy information document C CHILD POVERTY AND HOMELESSNESS What is Child Poverty? Children (and their) families are living in poverty if their income and resources (material, cultural and social) are so inadequate as to preclude them from having a standard of living that is regarded acceptable by Irish society generally. Poverty manifests itself across a range of needs that go beyond income, to include inadequate housing, unequal access to health care, disability and educational disadvantage. The longer a child is poor the greater the impact on the life chances of the child and subsequent deprivation in later life. How many Children are in Poverty? The most recent research tells us that there are 66,000 children living in Ireland on an income below the poverty line (below 70% of national median income) and who experience the deprivation of such basic items as a substantial meal over a two week period or have always to wear second hand clothes instead of new and who don’t own two pairs of strong shoes. Who is at Risk of Poverty? A greater proportion of children than adults face a risk of poverty in Ireland. Certain groups of children are particularly at risk of experiencing poverty and social exclusion. Some of these groups are not included in the survey that produces the official figure for poverty among children in Ireland1. Groups not counted include Traveller children, children who are homeless – either in temporary accommodation or sleeping rough on the streets), children leaving institutional care and children of asylum seeking families. Groups of children particularly at risk of experiencing poverty and social exclusion include: • Children living in welfare dependent or low-income households • Children living in lone parent households • Children in families or four or more children • Children with disabilities • Children from the Traveller community • Children from asylum seeking families • Children from immigrant and refugee families • Children who leave school early • Children who leave the juvenile justice system or health board care What are the Effects of Poverty on Children’s Lives? Children living in poverty can be excluded form activities considered to be the norm by wider society and their peers. Previous research found that 13% of poor families were unable to afford a birthday party for their child, 11% could not afford to send them on a school trip and 14% could not afford to give them pocket money. How difficult this exclusion is are summed up in the words of poor children: ‘The worst thing [about being poor] is being bullied and being frightened of being beaten up’ (child) ‘Being poor: that’s what I would change. All the kids have brand names…we haven’t. We stick out and are we’re picked on. Look at what I’m wearing, these crap runners. You get picked on for wearing these’ (girl who left school because of bullying)2 Being in poverty also causes adverse effects on a child’s education and health. For example, we know that 15% of young people leave school without a Leaving Cert and that 3% leave without any qualification at all3. We know that up to 1,000 children do not transfer annually from primary to secondary school and that one in ten children leave primary school with serious literacy problems. We know one of the outcomes of this educational disadvantage is that children from poor backgrounds who leave school early with few or no qualifications have significantly higher unemployment rates than average and earn considerably less than average wages4. Poverty affects not only the health status of children but their access to health care. Children reliant on the public health system experience much longer delays in accessing out-patient and in-patient care than those covered by private health insurance. Citing the connection between poverty and ill-health and the importance of removing financial obstacles to medical treatment for children, the Chief Medical Officer of the Department of Health and Children has called for the provision of free primary health care for all children. How many children and young people are homeless or at risk of homelessness? According to the most recent government statistics5, we know that: • 50, 000 children are currently in need of housing and are on local authority housing waiting lists with their families. • There are a total of 1,405 children who are homeless with their families in Ireland6. • 1,140 children are homeless with their families in the Dublin area alone. The majority of these children are under 12 years of age, and over half of these children are under 5 years of age. • 588 unattached homeless children were dealt with by Health Boards in 2000. • Approximately 3,000 children within the 1,200 Traveller families are living on the roadside without piped water or electricity. What is the Experience of Homelessness for Children? Research shows us the negative impact on children’s schooling, health, ability to maintain friendships, and overall well-being of living in overcrowded and confined space with little or no access to play and recreational facilities. The following quotes from parents of children out of home reinforce this7: ‘I can see it in their little faces, like, in other words, they do be depressed and sometimes very sad’ (Mother, 3 Children living in emergency accommodation) ‘It [homelessness] affects them more mentally than physically… like their heads are a bit confused and muddled up form moving from here to here and not knowing what’s going on’ (Father, 5 children living in emergency accommodation) He’s no friends here. He’s basically just sitting around here. That’s what he does all day. He’s totally mixed up. His health is very poor. He’s a lot of psychological problems and all. It’s just totally mixed up altogether. He doesn’t know whether he is coming or going’ (mother, 5 children living in emergency accommodation) What are Government Commitments to End Child Poverty? The following table gives a short summary of government policy commitments to end child poverty. National Anti-Poverty Strategy (NAPS) 2002-2007 and National Action Plan against Poverty and Social Exclusion (NAPincl) 2003-2005 Commitments made to eliminate child poverty and to move towards greater equality for all children in terms of access to education, health and housing. National Children’s Strategy, 2000. Promises to provide children ‘with the financial supports necessary to eliminate child poverty’ Programme for Government, 2002 States that the effort to end child poverty will be ‘a core element’ of the Government’s work Sustaining Progress, 2003-2005 (social partnership agreement) Restates the NAPS commitment and established ‘Ending Child Poverty’ as one of the Ten Special Initiatives to be undertaken over the lifetime of the Agreement. Health Strategy, 2001 Commitment made to substantially expand Medical Card eligibility so as to include an additional 200,000 low income people, taking particular account of the needs of families with children Education (Welfare) Act, 2001 Established the National Educational Welfare Board and provided for Education Welfare Officers to encourage regular school attendance and develop strategies to reduce absenteeism and early school leaving. Housing (Traveller Accommodation) Act, 1998 Obliges local authorities to provide accommodation for Traveller families Homelessness: An Integrated Strategy Prioritised the elimination of the use of Bed and Breakfast accommodation for families other than in emergencies and then for only a short term, ideally no longer than 1 month. Who are the End Child Poverty Coalition (ECPC) and what do they do? Focus Ireland is a founding member organisation of the End Child Poverty Coalition (ECPC). ECPC comprises seven national organisation working in partnership to promote greater public awareness of poverty in Ireland and for public policies and actions that contribute to the ending of child poverty by the Government’s target date of 2007. The seven partner organisations are: • • • • • • • Barnardos Children’s Rights Alliance Focus Ireland National Youth Council of Ireland Pavee Point OPEN – One Parent Exchange and Network Society of St. Vincent de Paul More information and materials can be found the ECPC website www.endchildpoverty.ie ECPC’s most recent submission to government was on Budget 2005. In it we argued that none of the government’s strategies, initiatives and commitments to end child poverty will come to fruition without adequate funding. We argue that tackling child poverty requires the development of a comprehensive, fully-resourced and sustained programme of action that can address the multi-dimensional nature of child poverty. In short, we argue that there are 5 key areas where Budget 2005 should act to make a decisive impact on meeting the commitment to end child poverty. 1. Implement the promised increase in Child Benefit to provide monthly payment fo €149.90 for 1st and 2nd child, and €185.40 for 3rd and subsequent children. 2. Equalise and increase the Child Dependent Allowances (CDAs) to €28. Budget 2006 should then increase CDAs to €30, and Budget 2007 to €35. 3. Ensure that the numbers of children and families covered by the medical card should return to at least the 2001 figure during 2005. 4. Provide sufficient funding to acquire, enable and provide 10,000 social housing units in 2005. 5. Adequately resource the National Educational Welfare Board to ensure that full implementation of the Education Welfare Act, 2000. 1 Living in Ireland Survey 1994-2001. 2 Daly, M and Leonard, M. (2002) Against All Odds: Family life on a low income in Ireland, Combat Poverty Agency, Dublin. 3 www.newb.ie 4 Fitzgerald, E. (2004) Counting Our Children: an analysis of official data sources on children a and childhood in Ireland, Children’s Research Centre, Dublin. 5 Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Assessment of Housing Need, 2002. 6 Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Assessment of Youth Homelessness, 2002. 7 Halpenny, A.M., Keogh, A.F. and Gilligan, R. (2002) A Place for Children? Children and families living in emergency accommodation, Children’s Research Centre, TCD and Homeless Agency, Dublin. Focus Ireland, 9-12 High Street, Dublin 8 Tel: 01 8815900 Fax: 01 8815950 www.focusireland.ie email: [email protected]