Pandemic could be key trigger for wave of child poverty

The results of the study "underline the likely consequences of the current pandemic for children through parental unemployment, increased poverty and financial stress". 

Relationship breakdown and parental job losses are key triggers for child poverty — the recession also had a pronounced effect — and new research suggests the pandemic could have a similar impact unless steps are taken now.

The report by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) is based on findings from the Growing up in Ireland (GUI) survey, looking at the economic evidence and exposure to poverty of children from infancy to nine years (the 2008 Cohort) and from nine years to 17 years (the 1998 Cohort).

It charts low income, deprivation and having difficulty making ends meet and found the poverty rate varies from 9% in the ’98 Cohort at age nine, to a high of 29% for the ’08 cohort at age three.

"The impact of the Great Recession is clearly visible for both cohorts, with rates peaking in 2011–2012," it said.

However, it said while the data used was gathered before the pandemic, "the results underline the likely consequences of the current pandemic for children through parental unemployment, increased poverty and financial stress". 

It said the removal of supports, such as the Pandemic Unemployment Payment and the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme, would need to consider "the need to protect children and young people from the longer-term damaging impacts of even transient spells of EV (economic vulnerability".

The ESRI report, which will be launched today by Minister for Children, Roderic O'Gorman, said relationship breakdown was a key risk for child poverty.

"In the ‘98 cohort, families, where a partner had left the household between surveys, were 2.5 times more likely to become poor than families where there was no partnership change," it said. "In the ‘08 cohort, the risk was 3.5 times greater."

The study also highlights the importance of mothers’ and fathers’ employment for family moves into and out of poverty, and the role of full-time work.

It also found that persistent poverty was more common among children and young people living in one-parent families or large families with four or more children.

Around four-in-10 children experienced at least one spell of poverty over the period of the study, from 2007 to 2017.

In around half of these cases, families were always or persistently poor while for the other half, poverty was once-off or never in two consecutive surveys.

However, poverty during childhood is associated with worse outcomes across almost all key aspects of a child’s life, including cognitive and educational attainment, school engagement, socio-emotional development, life satisfaction, self-concept, having a chronic illness/disability, obesity, and health behaviours.

"For most outcomes, there appears to be a cumulative effect of poverty exposure, in that outcomes are worse in the case of persistent or constant exposure," it said.

Nevertheless, even children who have a once-off experience of poverty have worse outcomes than those who are never exposed.

"The relationship between duration of poverty exposure and outcomes was equally strong for both cohorts, suggesting that effective policy interventions can be made throughout children and young people’s lives and not only in early childhood."

It said: "Preventing poverty in middle to late childhood, particularly persistent poverty, is likely to have very tangible benefits across a whole range of outcomes."