SILC Module on Child Deprivation 2021

Introduction

The Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) in Ireland is the official source of data on household and individual income and provides a number of key national poverty indicators, such as the at risk of poverty rate, the consistent poverty rate, and rates of enforced deprivation. It is one of a number of key household surveys conducted by the CSO.

Modules are carried out as part of SILC each year to complement the variables permanently collected in the survey. The principal theme of the 2021 SILC module was child-specific deprivation. 

Table 2.1 describes the child-specific deprivation items collected in the 2021 SILC module. Households with at least one child aged less than 16 on the date of interview were asked questions related to these items.

Table 2.1 Child-specific deprivation Items

Item	Description of Item	Base
Clothes	Unable to afford some new (not second-hand) clothes for children under 16	Households with at least one child under 16
Shoes	Unable to afford two pairs of properly fitting shoes in good condition that are suitable for daily activities for children under 16	Households with at least one child under 16
Meals	Unable to afford a meal with meat, chicken or fish (or vegetarian equivalent) at least once a day for children under 16	Households with at least one child under 16
Fruit and vegetables	Unable to afford fruit and vegetables once a day for children under 16	Households with at least one child under 16
Holiday	Unable to afford a one week holiday away from home for children under 16	Households with at least one child under 16
Books	Unable to afford age-appropriate books for children under 16	Households with at least one child under 16
Indoor games	Unable to afford indoor games (educational baby toys, building blocks, board games, computer games, etc) for children under 16	Households with at least one child under 16
Leisure equipment	Unable to afford outdoor leisure equipment (e.g. bicycle, roller skates, etc.) for children under 16	Households with at least one child under 16
Leisure activity	Unable to afford regular leisure activity (e.g. swimming, playing an instrument, youth organisations, etc.) for children under 16	Households with at least one child under 16
Party	Unable to afford celebrations on special occasions for children under 16	Households with at least one child under 16
Friends	Unable to afford to invite friends of children under 16 round to play or eat from time to time	Households with at least one child under 16
Homework	Unable to afford suitable place to study or do homework  for children under 16	Households with at least one child under 16 in education
School trips	Unable to afford school trips and school events (that cost money) for children under 16	Households with at least one child under 16 in education

Information on child-specific deprivation was gathered from the household questionnaire respondent, typically a parent of the child/children in the household. In households with more than one child under the age of 16, the deprivation item questions were not generally asked specifically of each child. Taking the question about child deprivation in relation to shoes as an example, a respondent with three children aged less than 16 was asked ‘Your household has three children under the age of 16, does each of these three children have two pairs of properly fitting shoes in good condition that are suitable for daily activities?’ Answer options were:

• Yes
• No, because cannot afford
• No, other reason

Where the household questionnaire respondent answered ‘No, because cannot afford’, then the household was classified as being deprived of the item for all children.

Questions related to two of the thirteen child deprivation items (homework and school trips) were asked individually with respect to all school going children aged under 16 in a responding household. If a household had one child deprived (for one of these two items) and another not deprived of the item, then the household was classified as deprived of the item.

In this publication a child is defined as a household member aged less than 16 at date of interview, as child-specific deprivation questions were only collected from households with at least one such household member.

Results at State Level

Over one in five households experienced some form of child-specific deprivation

More than three-quarters (77.1%) of households with children (households with at least one household member aged less than 16 at time of interview) were not deprived of any of the 13 items. Almost one in ten households (9.2%) were deprived of two or more items. See Figure 2.1 and view Table SILCCD01 in PxStat.

One in twenty households unable to afford regular leisure activities for their children

One in five (19.8%) households were unable to afford a one-week holiday away from home for their children. The percentage of households deprived of the other child-specific items was comparatively low. For seven of the child-specific items (homework, friends, party, indoor games, books, meals, fruits and vegetables) less than 2% of households experienced deprivation. Almost one in twenty households (4.7%) reported they were unable to afford regular leisure activities (e.g. swimming, playing an instrument) for their children aged less than 16. A similar percentage of households reported child-specific deprivation for shoes (3.6%), clothes (4.3%), and school trips (3.8%). See Figure 2.2 and view Table SILCCD02 in PxStat.