The Northern Ireland Households Below Average Income Report (2014-15) is released

Date published: 29 September 2016

The Households Below Average Income report is produced annually by the Department for Communities and contains statistics on income, income inequality and poverty.

The Households Below Average Income report follows on from the Northern Ireland Poverty Bulletin released earlier in the year, providing a more detailed analysis of income and poverty in Northern Ireland.

Key facts include:

Unless specifically stated, any figures presented in this press release are not statistically significant.

Income

Before Housing Costs:

• The NI Poverty Bulletin released in June showed the following. In 2014-15 average (median) household income in Northern Ireland before housing costs was £420 per week or £21,900 per year, representing a 3% increase from the previous year. Average income in Northern Ireland reached its highest level in 2008/09 followed by a fall as a result of the economic recession. However, since 2011-12 incomes have begun to rise again, but in 2014-15 still remain lower than the series high in 2008-09.
• Today’s HBAI report provides further detail on the income distribution. This shows, for example, that in 2014-15 those households in the top 20% of the income distribution had a weekly income 3.8 times higher than the bottom 20%. The Gini coefficient fell slightly to 29. This compares to 34 in the UK, where income inequality is generally higher.

Whole population

Before Housing Costs:

• The NI Poverty Bulletin released in June showed the following. In 2014-15 22% of individuals were considered to be in relative poverty and 20% were considered to be in absolute poverty.
• The HBAI report released today provides more information on those living in poverty. A key finding of this is that of all the family types, couples without children had the lowest risk of being in relative poverty, at 15%. The family type at the highest risk was single with children, at 35%.

Children

Before Housing Costs:

• The earlier NI Poverty Bulletin released in June showed the percentage of children in relative poverty increased to 25% in 2014-15, up from 23% in the previous year. The proportion of children in absolute poverty has decreased to 23%, down by 1 percentage point from the previous year.
• The long term trend shows that children are at a higher risk of living in poverty than the overall NI population in both relative and absolute measures.

Today’s HBAI report shows, for example, that more than half of children living in workless households were living in relative poverty in 2014-15 (57%).

Working-age adults

Before Housing Costs:

• The NI Poverty Bulletin highlighted that the percentage of working age adults in relative poverty increased in 2014-15 to 21%, up from 20% in the previous year. The percentage of working age adults in absolute poverty decreased to 19%, down from 20% in the previous year.
• The HBAI shows that the risk of being in relative poverty is much higher for workless households compared to working households, 59% compared to 13%. However, because there is a greater number of working households in general, when we look at the profile of those living in poverty we can see that around half of the individuals living in poverty are living in households where at least one adult is in work.

Over one third (38%) of working-age adults with no qualifications were in relative poverty in 2014-15, compared to less than one tenth (6%) of those with a qualification at degree level or above.

Pensioners

After Housing Costs:

• The NI Poverty Bulletin released in June showed the following. The percentage of pensioners in relative poverty decreased to 13% in 2014-15, down from 16% in the previous year. The percentage of pensioners in absolute poverty decreased to 12% in 2014-15, down from 16% in the previous year.
• In 2014-15 both relative and absolute poverty has fallen to the lowest level recorded since the start of the time series in 2002/03.

The HBAI report released today provides further detail on the income of pensioners. For example, in 2014-15 25% of pensioners with no occupational/personal pension were in relative poverty compared to 5% of pensioners with some occupational/personal pension.