Exposure to poverty in childhood has both immediate and long-term associated consequences. Reducing child poverty is a longstanding policy goal, with significant budget resources dedicated to income and service supports. In Ireland, the official measure of poverty is consistent poverty, which describes a person who is both materially deprived and At Risk of Poverty (AROP). Deprivation is defined as the enforced lack of two or more of 11 items, including items such as heating a home or eating protein once every two days. AROP is defined as having disposable income that is below 60 per cent of the median equivalised income for Ireland. This is also termed income poverty. However there are considerable cohorts of people who are either deprived but not AROP, or AROP but not deprived. This study is interested in the former, given the vulnerability of children who are above an income threshold but still experiencing deprivation.

Key findings:

• The number of children defined as deprived but not AROP has increased, with 17% of children defined as such in 2023 compared to 12% in 2020.
• More than half of deprived not AROP children live in households with incomes slightly above the poverty line—specifically, between 60% and 80% of the median income.
• Adjusting income to account for housing costs moves many of these children below the poverty line, highlighting the burden of housing expenses on family living standards.
• Among children who are deprived but not AROP, 39% live in households where at least one person over the age of 16 has a disability, and 41% live in lone parent households. Due to the extra costs associated with disability, households that include a disabled person do not have the same standard of living as households with the same income but without a disabled member.
• Other risk factors include migrant status, low education levels and unemployment of adults in the household.
  The households of children who are deprived but not AROP experience significant financial strain, with debt problems and heavy burdens from loan repayments comparable to those in consistent poverty.

Policy implications

The findings of this report suggest that:

• Current poverty measures may not fully capture the extent of deprivation experienced by children in Ireland. Future poverty measurement should consider a range of income thresholds to identify those households already experiencing a lower standard of living who are at risk of falling into consistent poverty.
• Adjusting income measures for housing costs can better capture the impact of the current housing crisis on the standard of living of Irish households.
• Efforts to address child poverty need to address the substantial risks faced by lone parents and people with disability.  
• A multi-faceted policy approach is required to reach children experiencing deprivation. Tapering all income supports is important so those just above the income thresholds are not fully excluded. Supports targeted at areas of high deprivation (such as the DEIS scheme) as well as universal services are also needed to reach children that are deprived but not AROP.