29/11/2007

Lower Risk Of Elderly Living In Poverty

There has been a significant decline in what the Government calls the risk of poverty rate for elderly people.

Figures just released relate that, during 2006, the at risk of poverty rate for persons aged 65 and over was 13.6%, representing a significant decline on the 20.1% recorded one year previously.

Slight decreases were also evident among children (21.2% to 20.2%) and the working age population (17.4% to 16.6%). Overall, 17.0% of the population were at risk of poverty in 2006, compared to 18.5% in 2005.

Persons living in households where the head of household was unemployed rate at 60.8%, students at 51.6% and or ill or disabled at 44.4% were the groups most at risk of poverty.

Other high-risk groups were unemployed individuals (44.0%), persons ill or disabled (40.8%) and members of lone parent households (39.6%).

Meanwhile, there was no significant change in the consistent poverty rate, with a level of 6.9% in 2006 compared to 7.0% in 2005. High-risk groups were members of lone-parent households (32.5%) and households where the head of household was unemployed (31.3%).

The average net disposable household income increased by 7.8% to €836.44 per week in 2006, compared to €776.11 in 2005. The 'equivalised' net disposable income increased by 7.4% to €406.84 per person per week.

The at risk of poverty threshold increased by €9.75 or 5.1%, year on year, to €202.49 per person per week in 2006.

These figures are taken from the latest EU-SILC survey results, published by the Central Statistics Office.

(BMcC)

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