26% in Northern Ireland live with ‘multiple deprivation’

26% of adults in Northern Ireland live with ‘multiple deprivation’, (lacking three or more basic necessities), and this figure increases among those who experienced violent events during the ‘Troubles’, according to research from Queen’s University Belfast.
 
Among those who lost a close friend during the ‘Troubles’, the multiple deprivation rate rose to 36 per cent. Multiple deprivation means that people live with three or more deprivations, such as lack of food, heating or clothing, due to lack of money.
 
The figures are included in the largest study of poverty and deprivation ever conducted in the UK, The Poverty and Social Exclusion in the United Kingdom (PSE) project, led by the University of Bristol and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.
 
Professor Mike Tomlinson (pictured) from Queen’s School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work led the study in Northern Ireland, which included a special section on people’s experience of violent events during the ‘Troubles’.

This looked at death and injury of close friends and relatives, witnessing violence such as bomb explosions or assaults, imprisonment, and other events including moving house because of threats, attack or intimidation.

Additional findings from Northern Ireland relating to multiple deprivations include the following:
 
• For those who had a close relative injured the deprivation rate is 38 per cent.
• If someone witnessed an assault, the deprivation rate is 43 per cent.
• If a close relative had spent time in prison, the deprivation rate is 45 per cent.
• Those who had their house searched by the police or army have a deprivation rate of 56 per cent.
• The deprivation rate for those who moved house due to attack, intimidation, threats or harassment is 58 per cent.
 
Professor Tomlinson said: “Experience of violent events in the past increased the chances of suffering from ‘multiple deprivation’ in the present. Research in many parts of the world has shown that violent conflicts can result in long term problems of poverty and deprivation.  This is what has happened in Northern Ireland.  The evidence is clear. ‘Dealing with the past’ needs to include tackling the deprivation of those whose lives are most blighted by the years of conflict.”
 
Across the UK, the PSE project found that the percentage of households who fall below society’s minimum standard of living has increased from 14 per cent to 33 per cent over the last 30 years, despite the size of the economy doubling.

Other key figures reveal that almost 18 million people in the UK cannot afford adequate housing conditions; 12 million people are too poor to engage in common social activities; one in three people cannot afford to heat their homes adequately in the winter and four million children and adults aren’t properly fed by today’s standards.

Other UK-wide findings include:
• About 5.5 million adults go without essential clothing.
• Around 2.5 million children live in homes that are damp.
• Around 1.5 million children live in households that cannot afford to heat their home.
• One in four adults have incomes below what they consider is needed to avoid poverty.
• One in every six (17 per cent) adults in paid work are poor.
• More than one in five adults have had to borrow in the last year to pay for day to day needs.
 
The PSE standard of living survey results show that more than one in every five (22 per cent) children and adults in the UK were poor at the end of 2012. They had both a low income and were also ‘multiply deprived’ – suffering from three or more deprivations such as lack of food, heating and clothing due to a lack of money.
 
Far more households are in arrears on their household bills in 2012 (21 per cent) than in 1999 (14 per cent).  The most common bills in arrears now are utility bills, council tax and mortgage/rent.
 
The PSE project involved researchers from Queen’s alongside the University of Bristol, Heriot-Watt University, the Open University, University of Glasgow, University of Oxford, University of Birmingham, University of York, the National Centre for Social Research and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency.
 
For more information visit http://www.poverty.ac.uk