4.2.05
IOL
One in three live in poverty in North
04/02/2005 - 09:58:34
Nearly a third of the North's population is living below the poverty line according to shock details released today.
Studies of poverty showed there was a higher proportion of families in poverty than in either the Republic or in Britain.
Academics at Queen’s University Belfast have found that 185,000 households - more than 500,000 people - were living below the poverty line.
Poverty was measured by two yardsticks: low income and deprivation – having to go without things which the public regard as necessities of life, such as enough money to pay heating, electricity and telephone bills on time and new, not second-hand, clothes.
Professors Paddy Hillyard and Eithne McLaughlin were detailing their findings at a seminar of senior social scientists and police-makers meeting in Belfast to explore how far the British government is succeeding in abolishing child poverty, reducing social exclusion and improving equal opportunities in the North.
Brought together by the Economic and Social Research Council, the UK’s biggest funder of social research, the seminar was examining the distribution of income, benefits and tax in the North.
The academics’ reports showed that children and families in the North were more deprived than their counterparts in Britain.
Professor Hillyard said the North was one of the most unequal societies in the developed world.
He added: “The challenge for Northern Ireland and local politicians is how to reduce these deep fractures of inequality and create a more just society.”
Professor McLaughlin said lone parents in the province face particular difficulties because of low levels of job opportunities for women generally, combined with low pay and lack of early years provision.
One in three live in poverty in North
04/02/2005 - 09:58:34
Nearly a third of the North's population is living below the poverty line according to shock details released today.
Studies of poverty showed there was a higher proportion of families in poverty than in either the Republic or in Britain.
Academics at Queen’s University Belfast have found that 185,000 households - more than 500,000 people - were living below the poverty line.
Poverty was measured by two yardsticks: low income and deprivation – having to go without things which the public regard as necessities of life, such as enough money to pay heating, electricity and telephone bills on time and new, not second-hand, clothes.
Professors Paddy Hillyard and Eithne McLaughlin were detailing their findings at a seminar of senior social scientists and police-makers meeting in Belfast to explore how far the British government is succeeding in abolishing child poverty, reducing social exclusion and improving equal opportunities in the North.
Brought together by the Economic and Social Research Council, the UK’s biggest funder of social research, the seminar was examining the distribution of income, benefits and tax in the North.
The academics’ reports showed that children and families in the North were more deprived than their counterparts in Britain.
Professor Hillyard said the North was one of the most unequal societies in the developed world.
He added: “The challenge for Northern Ireland and local politicians is how to reduce these deep fractures of inequality and create a more just society.”
Professor McLaughlin said lone parents in the province face particular difficulties because of low levels of job opportunities for women generally, combined with low pay and lack of early years provision.
