• Work with children & families
• Specialist services
• Campaign and lobby
  • Advocacy in Barnardos
  • What Can I Do?
  • Barnardos Conference 2012
  • Budget 2012
  • 2011 School Costs Survey - Results
  • Children’s Rights
  • Child Poverty
  • Educational Disadvantage
  • Separated Children
  • Child Welfare and Protection
  • Child Abuse
  • Other policy areas
• Training

Child Poverty

Childhood is short, yet the experiences we have shape the adults we become and the lives we lead. Children living in poverty live life on the margins, excluded from opportunities and often unable to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty. Poverty affects every aspect of a child’s life having short and long term consequences on their health, education outcomes and life chances.

Key statistics:

Some top line statistics from CSO EU SILC 2010

• Families with children are suffering the worst consequences of the recession - many are now going without essentials such as electricity, clothing and food. (CSO Quarterly National Household Survey, 2011)
• One-fifth of households delayed or missed paying their bills in order to meet everyday outgoings, while one in 10 delayed or missed loan repayments or their credit card bill. (CSO Quarterly National Household Survey, 2011)
• In 2010, 8.2% of children (aged 0-17) continued to live in consistent poverty. Consistent poverty means that these children are living in households with incomes below 60% of the national median income and experiencing deprivation based on the agreed eleven deprivation indicators. This can mean going 24 hours without a substantial meal or being cold because parents are unable to afford to heat the home (CSO EU SILC 2010).
• Children at risk of poverty rose from 18.6% in 2009 to 19.5% in 2010. This means the household income is below 60% of the national median income.
• Significant increase in income inequality between 2009 and 2010 was evident as the average income of those in the highest income bracket was 5.5 times that of those in the lowest income bracket (CSO EU SILC 2010).
• Households with 2 parents and 1-3 children saw their risk of poverty rise from 11.4% in 2009 to 17.2% in 2010 and the consistent poverty rate up from 5.4% in 2009 to 7.0% in 2010 (CSO EU SILC 2010).
• Consistent poverty rates also rose from 6.3% in 2009 to 9.6% in 2010 for other types of households including those with more than 3 children (CSO EU SILC 2010).
• Those headed by an unemployed person experienced a rise in their risk of poverty from 24.8% in 2009 to 26.1% in 2010 and a significant jump in their consistent poverty rate from 11.5% in 2009 to 15.2% in 2010 (CSO EU SILC 2010).

Reports

"All You Need Is..." Report from Barnardos & St Vincent de Paul

Barnardos and Society of St Vincent de Paul commissioned the Children’s Research Centre to examine child deprivation by creating child specific indicators – items children deem essential for all children to have to ensure an acceptable standard of childhood.

• View a brief summary of the report 
• View the full report

Policy

• Child Poverty: Ireland in Recession April 2011 (PDF 2,452 KB)

The End Child Poverty Coalition consists of eight organisations who work with children and families experiencing poverty. These are Barnardos, Children’s Rights Alliance, Focus Ireland, National Youth Council of Ireland, OPEN, Pavee Point, Start Strong and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.

• Advisory Group on Tax and Social Welfare Submission (September 2011)
• Presentation to Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure & Reform - November 2011
• Submission into the Comprehensive Spending Review - July 2011
• The Experience and Scale of Child Poverty in Ireland - December 2010
• End Child Poverty Coalition submission to Value for Money Review of Child Income Supports - 2010

Campaigns

• Barnardos Knows: Budget 2012 Campaign
• Children's Budget 2011 Dreading December Campaign
• Children's Budget 2010 YES / NO Campaign
• Cost of a Child Briefing Paper (2009) by Brian Harvey
• Seven Steps to Ending Child Poverty 2005 Report