NEW FIGURES FROM the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that households in receipt of housing subsidies were two and a half times more ‘at risk of poverty’ after they had paid their rent in 2020.

The figures are contained in a new report by Social Justice Ireland, which was published today. The CSO defines being ‘at risk of poverty’ as those whose income is less than 60% of the national median.

According to the report, the poverty rate among households in receipt of housing subsidies, such as the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP) and Rental Accommodation Scheme, was 22.7% before they made any rent payments.

After these payments were made, the risk of poverty increased to 55.9%, almost two-and-a-half times the pre-housing costs rate.

The overall rate of people at risk of poverty in the State was 13.2%. That equates to 661,518 people, including 210,363 children.

That rate increased to 19% after accounting for mortgage interest and rent payments, meaning nearly one million people were at risk of poverty in 2020 when housing costs were taken into account.

Those at highest risk of poverty were those living in rented accommodation, increasing from a poverty rate of 27.6% to 44.7% after making housing payments.

CSO CSO

The risk of poverty for households in local authority accommodation increased from 37.6% to 49.8% after rent payments, while lone parents were the group most at risk of poverty, with a rate of 31.8% before household costs.

Economic and social analyst at Social Justice Ireland Colette Bennett said that the figures prove that housing subsidies “do not work”. 

Clearly subsidies are not working when the rents households must pay are driving them into poverty at this rate.

“The decline in local authority construction, discretionary nature of HAP tenancies, increase in the cost of private rents and the promotion by Government of policies which seek to rely on the private rented sector for the provision of social housing, places low-income households in precarious living situations,” she added.

The report also found that of the 726,668 people aged over 65 in the State in 2020, 7.9% – or 57,407 – were living at risk of poverty before housing costs. After housing costs, the risk increased to 11.9%, an additional 29,067 older people.

The rate of poverty risk among people unable to work due to health problems in 2020 rose from 33.7% to 47.4% after housing costs, equating to 92,643 people.

People who are unemployed have a consistently high rate of poverty risk, the report found. At 32%, 75,373 people were living below the poverty line before housing costs in 2020. 

This rate increased to 44.4%, more than one in four or 104,500 people, after these costs were taken into account. 

CEO of Social Justice Ireland Dr Seán Healy said: “It should be a national priority to provide all with sufficient income to live life with dignity.”

This would require enough income to provide a minimum floor of social and economic resources in such a way as to ensure that no person in Ireland falls below the threshold of social provision necessary to enable him or her to participate in activities that are considered the norm for society generally, including the provision of a decent home.

Concluding the report, Social Justice Ireland proposed that the Government set a target for 20% of all housing stock in Ireland to be social housing.

“An increase in real social housing provision would free up almost 60,000 private rented properties into the market, which would undoubtedly have a positive impact on rent costs, making them more affordable,” the group said.