Poverty Indicators by Health Status - Survey on Income and Living Conditions SILC 2023

At Risk of Poverty

In March 2024, the CSO published Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) 2023. The publication focused on poverty and income indicators and results were published by demographic and other characteristics.

An individual is defined as being at risk of poverty if their nominal equivalised disposable income is under the at risk of poverty threshold, i.e. 60% of the median nominal equivalised disposable income for the State. The 2023 at risk of poverty threshold was €16,558. More information is available in a note on the At Risk of Poverty Indicators Explained (PDF 1,094KB) .

The annual SILC contains questions required for the Minimum European Health Module (MEHM). These questions allow for analysis of poverty status for respondents aged 16 years and older by:

• Self-perceived general health status
• Chronic morbidity status and
• Activity limitations (the presence of long-standing activity limitation due to health problems measured via the Global Activity Limitation Indicator (GALI)).

The Editor’s Note in the Key findings section of this report describes the questions used to derive the GALI status of survey respondents aged 16 years and older. The questions and answer options for self-perceived general health status and chronic morbidity status can also be found in the Editor’s Note.

Poverty rates increase as general health status declines

In 2023, the at risk of poverty rate for people aged 16 years and older was 9.5%, down from 12.0% in 2022. The 2023 at risk of poverty rate for people aged 16 years and older who perceived their general health as very bad was more than twice the rate for those with a very good perception of their health (19.7% and 7.8% respectively) (See Figure 3.1 and Table SIH02).

People with a chronic illness more likely to be at risk of poverty

The at risk of poverty rate for people with a self-reported chronic illness was 12.0%, almost four percentage points higher than the rate for those without a chronic illness (8.4%) (See Figure 3.2 and Table SIH03).

The at risk of poverty rate for persons with severe activity limitations is double the rate of those not limited

Almost double the percentage of people aged 16 years and older with long-standing severe activity limitations due to health problems were at risk of poverty in 2023 compared with those persons who were not limited at all (16.5% and 8.3% respectively). The comparable rate for those limited but not severely was 13% (See Figure 3.3 and Table SIH04).

Consistent Poverty

The consistent poverty measure is defined as people who are both at risk of poverty and experiencing enforced deprivation. The consistent poverty rate for people aged 16 years and older was 3.2% in SILC 2023 compared with 4.4% for the previous year (See Figure 3.4 and Table SIH02).

Consistent poverty rates increase with worsening general health

Analysis by self-perceived general health status shows that consistent poverty rates increase with worsening general health. The consistent poverty rate for people who perceived their general health as ‘very bad’ was almost five times higher than for people with ‘very good’ health (8.7% and 1.9% respectively).

People with a chronic illness are twice as likely to be living in consistent poverty

The consistent poverty rate for those who reported a chronic illness was 5.6% compared with 2.3% of people without a chronic illness (See Figure 3.5 and Table SIH03).

People with severe limitations are over three times more likely to be living in consistent poverty as those with no limitations

The 2023 consistent poverty rate for people severely limited in usual activities was almost four times higher than the rate for those not limited (8.9% and 2.4% respectively). The consistent poverty rate for people limited but not severely was 5.7% (See Figure 3.6 and Table SIH04).

Impact of Cost-of-living Measures on Poverty

In 2022 the Government announced a series of cost-of-living measures aimed at helping households meet higher costs. The annual average rate of inflation in 2022 was +7.8%. The largest price increases were recorded for Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas & Other Fuels at 20.6%. Further information can be found in the Consumer Price Index December 2022.

In this section, poverty rates are calculated excluding cost-of-living measures (what poverty rates would have been if cost-of-living measures were not implemented in 2022). Excluding cost-of-living measures calculates the at risk of poverty rate using the standard at risk of poverty threshold of €16,558.

The cost-of-living measures that were considered when calculating poverty rates excluding cost-of-living measures are listed below.

Between March and May 2022, the following cost-of-living measures, aimed at helping households pay higher energy bills were introduced:

• A universal €200 energy credit applied to domestic electricity customer accounts in the March/April 2022 billing cycle
• A €125 lump sum Fuel Allowance paid in March 2022 to all households that were in receipt of the Fuel Allowance
• A €100 lump sum Fuel Allowance paid in May 2022 to all households that were in receipt of the Fuel Allowance.

In July 2022, the rates of payments for the Back-to-School Clothing and Footwear Allowance scheme were increased by €100 for each eligible child.

Budget 2023 contained additional cost-of-living measures that were paid to individuals and households during the latter part of 2022. Budget 2023 cost-of-living measures that were paid/implemented in 2022 included:

• A double week payment for most people in receipt of a weekly social welfare payment (including all pensioners, carers and people on disability payments)
• A €400 lump sum Fuel Allowance payment to all households that were in receipt of the Fuel Allowance
• A €200 cost-of-living lump sum payment for pensioners and people with a disability in receipt of the Living Alone Increase
• A €500 cost-of-living lump sum payment to recipients of the Working Family Payment
• A double Child Benefit payment
• A €500 cost-of-living lump sum payment for people getting the Carer’s Support Grant
• A €500 cost-of-living lump sum for people in receipt of Disability Allowance, Invalidity Pension or Blind Pension
• A universal €200 energy credit applied to domestic electricity customer accounts in the November/December 2022 billing cycle
• A once-off extra maintenance payment (equivalent to one month’s maintenance grant payment at 2022 levels) to Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI) maintenance grant recipients.

The income reference period of SILC in year T is the calendar year T-1, therefore 2023 poverty rates were calculated using January to December 2022 income. The electricity credits that households received in 2022 are treated as income in the SILC survey.

Cost-of-living Measures had a positive impact on Poverty Rates by Self-perceived Health Status

Apart from those reporting very good health, there was a significant drop in poverty rates for persons aged 16 years and over across all self-reported health status categories from 2022 to 2023. As Figure 3.7 illustrates, the 2023 rates would have been broadly similar to the 2022 rates were the cost-of-living measures excluded. For example, the at risk of poverty rate for those reporting very bad general health in 2023 was 19.7%, whereas, if the cost-of-living measures were excluded the rate would have been 27.1%, broadly similar to the 2022 rate of 27.5% (See Figure 3.7 and Table SIH08).

Those without chronic illness less impacted by Cost-of-living Measures on Poverty Rates when compared with those with chronic illness

As mentioned earlier in this chapter, the at risk of poverty rate for people with a self-reported chronic illness was 12.0%. However, if the cost-of-living measures are excluded from income, their at risk of poverty rate would have been almost five percentage points higher at 16.8%. Cost-of-living measures reduced the at risk of poverty rate for those without a chronic illness to a lesser extent. The at risk of poverty rate for people without a self-reported chronic illness was 8.4%, without cost-of-living measures the rate would have been 10.1% (See Figure 3.8 and Table SIH09).

Cost-of-living Measures had greater impact on reducing Poverty Rates of persons severely limited

Similarly, cost-of-living measures had a greater impact on reducing the poverty rate of persons severely limited in usual activities when compared with those not limited. In 2023, the at risk of poverty rate for those severely limited was 16.5%, without cost-of-living measures the rate would have been seven percentage points higher at 23.5%. For persons not limited, their at risk of poverty rate excluding cost-of-living measures would have been 10.1% compared with their actual at risk of poverty rate of 8.3% (See Figure 3.9 and Table SIH10).

Positive impact of Cost-of-living measures on at Risk of Poverty rates amongst those with poor health may be due more to older age of those with poor health

As reported in Survey on Income and Living Conditions 2023, although the national at risk of poverty rate went down by almost two percentage points from 12.5% in 2022 to 10.6% in 2023, analysis by age group did not show significant decreases in poverty rates except for people aged 65 and over. For example, the 2023 at risk of poverty rate for people aged 0-17 was 14.3%, almost unchanged from the 2022 rate of 14.7%. The at risk of poverty rate for people aged 65 and over was 20.1% in 2022 and decreased by almost 12 percentage points to 8.3% in 2023.

Analysis of the impact of the cost-of-living measures on reducing the at risk of poverty rates by age group showed that the largest impact was for people aged 65 years and older. Cost-of-living measures reduced the at risk of poverty rate for people in this age group from 16.9% to 8.3%. Cost-of-living measures had the least impact on reducing the poverty rates of those aged 18 to 34. Excluding cost-of-living measures, the at risk of poverty rate for people aged 18 to 34 would have been 9.2%. Including cost-of-living measures, their poverty rate was 8.6%.

Results from the Census of Population 2022 Profile 4 – Disability, Health and Carers publication showed that the proportion of people reporting very good health decreases with age. For example, approximately six in ten (60.3%) people aged 25-29 years reported very good health compared with one in ten (10.2%) of those aged 85 and over.

It is therefore perhaps not surprising that the impact of the cost-of-living measures in reducing poverty rates was greater for persons reporting poor health, given that the prevalence of poor health increases with age. In other words, it may reflect the fact that the cost-of-living measures benefited those over 65 years more than other age groups rather than the fact that the measures benefited those reporting poor health generally, irrespective of their age.

As illustrated in Table 3.1, Figures 3.10a and 3.10b, cost-of-living measures reduced the at risk of poverty rate for those aged 65 years and over with bad health by 11.2 percentage points (from 27.7% to 16.5%), whereas for those under 65 with bad health, cost-of-living measures reduced their at risk of poverty rate  by 2.9 percentage points (from 25.6% to 22.7%).

Similarly, the impact of the cost-of-living measures in reducing the at risk of poverty rate of those reporting good health was relatively small for those under 65 years of age (a drop of 1.1 percentage points from 10.3% to 9.2%) when compared with those 65 and over reporting good health (a nearly eight times larger drop of 8.3 percentage points from 15.8% to 7.5%).

It may be reasonable to assume that the real driver in the decrease in poverty rates amongst those reporting bad health was the greater impact of the cost-of-living measures on reducing poverty rates for persons aged 65 and older, who were more likely to report poorer health.