Northern Ireland
Low income by work status
Key points
- Over the period 2003/04 to 2005/06, 65% of working-age people in 'workless - unemployed' families in Northern Ireland were in low income.
- Over the same period, the comparable rates for the four other groups were: 45% for 'workless - economically inactive'; 20% for 'part working' families, 20% for the self-employed and 3% for 'all working' families. This means that it is only families counted as 'all working' who have a really low risk of being in poverty.
- For four of the five groups, the rates in Northern Ireland are similar to the rates for the comparable group in GB. The exception to this is the 'workless - economically inactive' group (mainly sick, disabled and lone parents), where Northern Ireland's 45% rate compares with a GB rate of 55%. Since this group of people accounts for a substantial proportion of the working-age poverty in Northern Ireland, it is clear that this lower rate makes an appreciable difference to the overall poverty numbers.
- Working families between them contain a two-fifths of all working-age people in low income households; these people - some 80,000 - are therefore the ones experiencing what can be called 'in-work' poverty.
- A further two-fifths of working-age people in low income households are in 'workless - economically inactive' families (70,000). Just one in six (equivalent to 25,000 people) count as 'workless - unemployed'. Unemployment therefore accounts for just a small proportion of working-age people in poverty.
Graph 1: Risks
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Graph 2: Shares
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Definitions and data sources
The first graph shows the risk of a working-age person being in a low income household, with the data shown separately for the following family work statuses: all working (single or couple, with one in full-time work and the other - if applicable - in full-time or part-time work); part working (couples where one is working and the other is not plus singles or couples where no one is working full-time but one or more are working part-time); self-employed (head or spouse self-employed); workless - unemployed (head or spouse unemployed) and workless - economically inactive (includes long-term sick/disabled and lone parents). Pensioner families are excluded from the analysis. For comparison purposes, the equivalent data for Great Britain is also presented.
The second graph shows a breakdown of the low income working-age people by family work status. The self-employed are included in the 'part working' category as their risks of low income are similar, and much higher than the 'all working' category.
The data source for both graphs is Households Below Average Income, based on the Family Resources Survey (FRS). Income is disposable household income after deducting housing costs and the low income threshold is the same as that used elsewhere, namely 60% of contemporary median household income. All data is equivalised (adjusted) to account for differences in household size and composition. Note that in 2007 DWP made some technical changes to how it adjusted household income for household composition (including retrospective changes) and, as a result, the data is slightly different than previously published figures. The averaging over three-year bands has been done to improve the statistical reliability of the results.
The term 'family' is used to cover an adult and their spouse (if applicable) whereas the term 'household' is used to cover everyone living in a dwelling. So, a young adult living with their parents would count as one 'household' but two 'families'. In analysing the rates of low income by work status, the work status is analysed by family whereas the income is analysed by household. This is the main reason why the low income rates for workless families is much less than 100 per cent. Note that an alternative – and more technically correct - term for 'family' is 'benefit unit'. For a more detailed discussion of this issue, see the page on households, families and benefit units. Note that families where at least one of the adults is of pensionable age are excluded from the analysis.
Overall adequacy of the indicator: medium. The FRS is a well-established annual government survey designed to be representative of the population as a whole and the Northern Ireland sample has been boosted to improve sample sizes. However, the Northern Irish sample is a recent addition to the survey and is yet to be fully quality assured by the Department of Work and Pensions.