Campaign highlights child poverty

By Victoria O'Hara – 17 October 2007

Children in Dungannon are most likely to be living in low income families, an anti-poverty campaign has said.

A factsheet launched to mark the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty also states that the greater the number of children in a family, the higher the probability is that it would be in a low income bracket.

A conference in Belfast jointly organised by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and the Northern Ireland Anti-Poverty Network (NIAPN) heard that factors beyond the individual's control often cause poverty, such as unemployment, ill-health or relationship breakdown.

According to a Department of Social Development survey covering 2005/2006, more than half of children in Northern Ireland lived in households with incomes in the bottom two fifths of the income distribution.

The factsheet also revealed that before housing costs are taken into account, 43% of Northern Ireland's population have incomes of less than £300 per week, while 2% of Northern Ireland households live on less than £100 per week before housing costs.

That figure rises to 5% after housing costs.

Asylum seekers, lone parent families and the long-term unemployed were also referred to as the "invisible poor".

Frances Dowds, director of the NIAPN said: "This factsheet is intended to better inform the general public that poverty is not a personal choice."