Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC): Enforced Deprivation 2024

Household Arrears

Households were asked if they had arrears, i.e. failed to make a payment in time during the 12 months prior to the date of interview due to financial difficulties. These payments included mortgage or rental payments; utility bills; hire purchase instalments, or other loan payments. The answer categories were ‘yes, once’; ‘yes, twice or more’; ‘no’.

Care should be taken when interpreting mortgage arrears data from the SILC survey. In SILC a household is only considered to be owned with a mortgage if the purpose of the mortgage were to purchase or majorly refurbish the main dwelling. If a SILC household has one mortgage on the primary dwelling and if the main purpose for taking out the mortgage was not for purchase or major refurbishment of the main dwelling, e.g. to finance a business activity, then the household for SILC purposes is classified as ‘owned-outright’.

In 2024, of the 58.7% of households making mortgage or rent payments, 3.0% failed once and a further 5.9% failed twice or more to make a payment on time in the 12-month period prior to their date of interview. These rates are up slightly on the 2023 rates when 2.1% of households making mortgage or rent payments failed once and a further 5.3% failed twice or more to make a payment on time in the past 12 months. See figure 5.1 and table 5.1.

The data collection phase of the SILC is conducted during the first two quarters of the calendar year. Statistics published by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities show that electricity bill arrears for domestic customers were higher in Quarter 1, 2024 when compared with Quarter 1, 2023. For further information see Electricity and Gas Retail Markets Reports | CRU.ie.

In 2024, of households that had utility bills, 8.3%, had arrears on utility bills, with 6.2% failing to make a payment on time twice or more in the 12-month period prior to their interview date. In 2023, 7.3% of households had arrears on utility bills, one percentage point lower than the 2024 rate. The comparable rate for 2022 was 9.2%. See figure 5.2 and table 5.2.

In 2024, of households that had hire purchase instalments or other loan payments in 2024, 8.9% had arrears, with 6.3% failing to make a payment on time on two or more occasions in the 12-month period prior to their interview date. See figure 5.3 and table 5.3.

One in four single-adult households with children had arrears on mortgage or rental payments

Analysis by household composition shows that single-adult households with children were the most likely to have missed at least one mortgage, rent, utility or other loan repayments, in the 12-month period prior to interview. Of households making the relevant payments, one in four (25.6%) of single-adult households with children had arrears on mortgage or rental payments. Four in ten (38.7%) had arrears on utility bills and one in four (24.0%) had hire purchase instalments or other loan payment arrears. See figure 5.4.

Rented household more likely to be in arrears                                  

Analysis of arrears on mortgage or rental payments by tenure status, shows that in 2024, 3.5% of owner-occupied households with an outstanding mortgage failed, due to financial difficulties, to make one or more mortgage payments on time in the 12-month period prior to their interview date. Of households that pay rent 14.2% failed to make one or more rent payments on time. Rented households were also more likely to have arrears on utility bills with 16.5% of these households failing to make one or more utility bill payments on time in the past 12 months compared with 4.6% of owner-occupied households. Rented households were four times more likely to be in arrears on hire purchase instalments or other loan repayments when compared with owner-occupied households, with 17.7% of rented households and 4.4% of owner-occupied households having missed one or more repayments in the 12-month period prior to their interview date. See figure 5.5.

Households living in enforced deprivation more likely to be in arrears

In 2024, households living in enforced deprivation were more likely to have arrears on utility bills with over one in three (35.8%) of these households failing to pay one or more utility bill on time in the past 12 months due to financial difficulties. The comparable rate for households not experiencing deprivation was 3.3%. Almost one in four (23.7%) of households living in enforced deprivation that have a mortgage or live in rented accommodation (other than rent-free accommodation) failed to make one or more mortgage or rent payments on time in the past 12 months due to financial difficulties. The comparable rate for those not living in enforced deprivation was 5.0%. See figure 5.6.

Finances at the end of the month

Respondents to the SILC household questionnaire were asked ‘At the end of a typical month, do you’;

1. Have money to put aside/save
2. Need to draw money from savings
3. Need to borrow money
4. Don't have money to put aside/save, nor need to draw on savings/borrow

In 2024, over half (55.8%) of households could put money aside at the end of a typical month. Approximately one in twenty (5.5%) needed to draw money from savings and a smaller percentage (3.1%) needed to borrow money. The proportion of households that could put money aside rose by over two percentage points from the 2023 rate (53.4%) and the proportion of households that needed to borrow money in 2024 was relatively unchanged from the 2023 rate of 3.4%. See figure 5.7.

Analysis of those households that needed to borrow money at the end of a typical month shows that 5.8% of rented or rent-free households need to borrow money at the end of a typical month (two percentage points lower than the 2023 rate of 7.8% but higher than the 2022 rate of 4.7%). In comparison 1.8% of owner-occupied households needed to borrow money at the end of a typical month (up slightly on the 2023 rate of 1.4%). See figure 5.8.