Couples with children are the only households in Ireland to see their
income drop in the last few years according to figures released last
week by the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
The new figures compare the period 2004-2005 with 2009-2010.
It
found that despite the recession, every type of household except for
those comprising a mother and a father with children saw their gross
income rise.
Households headed by a couple with between one and three
children saw their income fall by 5 per cent. The chief reason for the
drop appears to be that these families were hardest hit by
unemployment.
According to the Household Budget Survey 2009-2010, the average
weekly gross income of households in this category decreased by from
€1,314.07 (in 2004-05) to €1,247.30.
By comparison, households
comprising of just one adult reported a gross income of €496.56, an
increase of 15.7 per cent on the same figure five years previous
(€429.33).
Households comprising of one adult with children had an
average weekly gross income of €514.65, an increase of 6.6 per cent on
the relative figure in 2004-2005, of €482.90.
Total state transfers contributed to 61.5 per cent of lone parent
households’ total gross income, largely because 62.7 per cent of lone
parent households self-reported themselves as either unemployed or not
economically active.
By comparison, both adults in 17.9 per cent of
households comprising of two adults with 1-3 children reported as being
unemployed or not economically active.
Households comprising two adults saw their average weekly income rise
by over 11 per cent, from €904.77 in 2004-04 to €1,005.25 in 2009-10,
while households comprising three adults saw just a 0.7 per cent rise,
from €1,418.84 in 2004-05 to €1,428.22 in 2009-10.
Households with
three or more adults with children saw their average weekly income rise
by nearly five per cent (4.9 per cent) from €1,341.17 in 2004-04 to
€1,407.07 in 2009-10.
Overall, households in the State saw an average increase of 3.9 per cent in their weekly income.
According to the CSO, the main reason for the drop in the weekly
income of two adult households with children is the drop in double
income couples in that category.
In 2004-05, 90.7 per cent of
households comprising two adults with 1-3 children had at least one
person working. Of these, 53.5 per cent had both adults working, and
the remaining 37.2 per cent had one adult working.
By 2009-10, 82.1 per cent of these households had one or more adults
in work, but 44.1 per cent of these households had only one working
adult, while 38.1 per cent were double income households, representing a
fall of over 15 per cent of double income households in this category.
By contrast, among households with two adults, the fall in employment
was far smaller, and there was no significant change in the number of
double income households in this category.
In 2004-05, 63.2 per cent of two adult households had at least one
person working.
The number of these households with one adult working
remained constant at 29.3 per cent between 2004-05 and 2009-10.
Meanwhile, the number of two adult households where both were working
went from 33.9 per cent in 2004-05 to 34.5 per cent in 2009-10.
Between 2004-05 and 2009-10, there was only a one per cent fall in
the percentage of number of employed people living in single adult
accommodation, from 37 per cent to 36.3 per cent.
In households headed by a single adult with children, the percentage
of adults who were employed fell from 46.5 in 2004-05 to 37.3 by
2009-10.
However, many such adults saw their income supplemented by
social welfare.