Tackling poverty

The editorial of September 25 - Tackling Poverty and Social Exclusion - raised some technical questions on the National Action Plan, which the Ministry for the Family and Social Solidarity is pleased to answer. Although the nature of the document demands highly technical statistical computations - based on NSO and Eurostat methodologies - these answers have intentionally been simplified as much as possible so that they may be understood by non-technical persons.

"And few will cavil with any attempt to increase female employment but we must ask whether the rate of unemployment among women takes into account the many hundreds employed as domestics".

The answer to this is: The rate of unemployment quoted in the National Action Plan/Inclusion follows the Labour Force Survey methodology which, in turn, follows the Eurostat methodology. Much depends on the kind of response given. When a person engaged as a domestic/maid answered the question on employment status as "employed" then, clearly, this person would not have been included in the category "unemployed". However, if a person expressed the availability to start working within two weeks, then s/he would have been considered as "unemployed". Those persons engaged as domestics/maids who answered in the negative to the question on availability to start work within two weeks were classified as "inactive".

"Some figures quoted in the plan sound baffling - 29 per cent of persons in rented housing were more at risk of poverty than the home owners' average."

Answer: Tenants who were earning Lm2,036 or less (i.e. 60 per cent of the median national annual equivalised household income) represent 29.1 per cent of all tenants while home owners in the same income bracket represent only 11.4 per cent of all home-owners.

"And what does the phrase 'at risk of poverty' mean in financial terms?"

Answer: The "at-risk-of-poverty" is a relative measure of poverty. It is relative to the 60 per cent of what is known as the median national annual equivalised household income in a particular year.

At the time of the survey (year 2000) the threshold for calculation of "at-risk-of-poverty" rate stood at Lm2,036. Some 57,380 persons (14.9 per cent of the whole population) were found below this threshold. It is to be noted that this section of the population is at risk of becoming poor, not actually considered as poor.