People with severe health problems almost twice as likely to be at risk of poverty - CSO

People with severe health problems are almost twice as likely to be at risk of poverty compared with those without limiting conditions, data from the Central Statistics Office indicates.

The severely unwell are about four times more likely to be unable to heat their house, or afford to buy new clothes instead of second-hand ones, than people who are well, according to the CSO survey.

The latest release of data from the CSO’s survey on income and living conditions looks at the experience of people aged 16 and over, who are severely limited by a health problem in activities that people normally do, as reported by themselves.

Some 19.4 per cent said they were unable to afford to get together with family or friends once a month for a drink or meal, compared to 7.5 per cent of people who were not limited by a health condition.

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More than one in five (22.8 per cent) of people who said they were severely limited in usual activities because of a health problem were unable to afford to keep their home adequately warm. The comparable rate for people who were not limited was 5 per cent.

One in five households with a severely limited household member reported that there was at least one occasion in the past 12 months where they failed to pay a utility bill on time due to financial difficulties, compared with 7.1 per cent of households where no one was described as activity limited.

“These results show poverty rates and rates of enforced deprivation are higher in respondents with a self-reported chronic illness, respondents who reported long-standing limitations in their usual activities due to health problems and in respondents who described their health as ‘bad’ or ‘very bad’,” said Gerry Reilly, senior statistician with the CSO.

The at risk of poverty rate for people with a self-reported chronic illness was 18.6 per cent, compared with 10.3 per cent for those without a chronic illness. Overall in the population, the at risk of poverty rate in 2022 was 12.7 per cent.

The enforced deprivation rate for people who described their health as “very bad” was 42.9 per cent, while the rate for those with “very good” health was 12.2 per cent.

The consistent poverty rate for people severely limited in usual activities because of a health problem was four times higher than the rate for those not limited (14.1 per cent and 3.5 per cent respectively).

One in two households (49.7 per cent) with a severely limited household member regarded total housing costs as a heavy financial burden compared with one in four (25.5 per cent) households where no one was limited.