There was some incredulity recently at suggestions that child poverty could be a significant factor in the Isle of Man. The situation was not helped by the fact that the Isle of Man government, unlike governments and regions in the United Kingdom, has no accurate incomes data, a factor that the Celtic League have urged should be rectified.
The Island has enjoyed unprecedented growth in recent years and its economic prosperity has outstripped the United Kingdom. In these circumstances it is difficult for many people to accept that a sizeable proportion of children may live in low income households.
However income is just a part of the equation when it comes to determining poverty.
Save the Children last year produced a thought provoking and well researched report on 'Severe Child Poverty in the UK'. The report explains the complexity of measuring child poverty and points out (section 2.1 Page 8):
"Given the multi-dimensional nature of poverty, its measurement should encompass a variety of dimensions and not just income (Perry, 2002), since focusing solely on income may miss out important aspects of what it means to be poor (Nolan and Whelan, 2005). Furthermore, it has been pointed out that poverty measures based solely on income are often limited, given the difficulty in obtaining an accurate calculation of a household's income and widespread misreporting of income by respondents in surveys."
The complete report which is in pdf can be found at:
J B Moffatt Director of Information Celtic League
09/02/08
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