Two Year Wait for Poverty Figures

It will be 2024 before the gov has a true picture of how many people on the island are living in absolutely poverty.

Chief Minister Alf Cannan was asked for what the gov uses as a definition for absolutely poverty and how many households are in poverty on the island by his former treasury minister David Ashford.

While Tynwald has a definition of poverty, adopted in 2019, using the Social Metrics Commission, work behind this still hasn’t been finalised.

Mr Cannan said: ‘To implement this resolution, as advised in previous responses by Council of Ministers, the data necessary to measure the Social Metrics Commission’s definition of poverty needs to be collected in the quinquennial Household Living and Expenditure Survey.

‘The next survey is due to be undertaken in 2023/24. Statistics Isle of Man is incorporating the requirements of the measure into the planning underway for the large-scale survey.’

The MSC explains its measure:

• Takes account of all material resources, not just incomes. For instance, this means including an assessment of the available assets that families have;
• Accounts for the inescapable costs that some families face, which make them more likely than others to experience poverty. These include, the extra costs of disability, and costs of childcare and rental and mortgage costs;
• Broadens the approach of poverty measurement to include an assessment of housing adequacy. For example, by regarding those sleeping rough as being in poverty; and
• Positions the measure of poverty within a wider measurement framework, which allows us to understand more about the nature of poverty in the UK