UNICEF Report Card 10: Measuring Child PovertyCANADIAN COMPANION (excerpts)

Relative poverty is the condition in which people lack the minimum amount of income needed in order to maintain the average standard of living in the society in which they live. Relative poverty is considered the easiest way to measure the level of poverty in a individual country. Relative poverty is defined relative to the members of a society and therefore differs across countries. People are said to be impoverished if they cannot keep up with standard of living as determined by society. Relative poverty also changes over time. As the wealth of a society increases, so does the amount of income and resources that the society deems necessary for proper conditions of living.

The majority of children live in families with incomes more than $8,000 below the poverty line, set by Statistics Canada at roughly $25,000 for a family of three living in a city of more than 500,000.http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/poverty-in-the-united-states-definitions-of-relative-absolute-poverty.html

Nearly a quarter of people in the world are living in absolute poverty. Learn more about absolute poverty and its causes from examples, then test your knowledge with a quiz.Definition of Absolute Poverty

Absolute poverty refers to a condition where a person does not have the minimum amount of income needed to meet the minimum requirements for one or more basic living needs over an extended period of time. This includes things like:

Food: Adults who have a body mass index that is below 17, or children who are over three standard deviations below a certain age/weight/height criteria Safe drinking water: Having to use surface water (i.e. rivers or streams), or having to spend at least 30 minutes to collect water from some source

Sanitation facilities: Lack of access to any type of toilet facility Health: Lack of access to any type of health care, including immunizations, prenatal care, or treatment for serious illnesses Shelter: Kids who live in places where there are more than four people to a room, adults who live in places with more than three people to a room, or adults and children who live in places with no floors Education: School-age children who have not in the past or are not currently in school, or adults who have not attended school and cannot read or write Information: Lack of access to any type of media, including radio, television, or computer Access to services: Lack of access to schools, health services, etc. Living in absolute poverty is harmful and can endanger your life. The standards set for absolute poverty are the same across countries. When it was established in 1990, the World Bank set the global absolute poverty line as living on less than $1 a day.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/04/15/map-how-35-countries-compare-on-child-poverty-the-u-s-is-ranked-34th

What are the LICOs?

The low income cut-offs (LICOs) are income thresholds below which a family will likely devote a larger share of its income on the necessities of food, shelter and clothing than the average family. The approach is essentially to estimate an income threshold at which families are expected to spend 20 percentage points more than the average family on food, shelter and clothing.1 The first set of published LICOs used the 1959 Family Expenditure Survey to estimate five different cut-offs varying between families of size one to five. These thresholds were then compared to family income from Statistics Canada's major income survey, the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF)2, to produce low income rates.

Canada:

• Relative child poverty: 13.3 %

• Child poverty rate is 25.1% before taxes and transfers

• After taxes and transfers, child poverty in Canada is cut by about half, to 13.3 %

• Poverty gap i.e., the depth of child poverty: 23rd among the 35 industrialized countries

• The Children Left Behind : measures the gap between the average child (what a country may consider 'normal') and the child near the bottom.

• It examines how far children are falling behind in

three dimensions of their lives: 1. material well-being,2. educational achievement 3. physical health

• These differences in a country’s performance both within and between countries can be measured and compared.

http://www.unicef.ca/en/create-content/press-release/rich-countries-including-canada-letting-poorest-children-fall-behind-sa

Child benefits in Canada’s 2012 budget: $13.2 billion

Elderly benefits: $40.4 billion Index of intergenerational justice: Canada ranks below the OECD average (Indicators in the index of intergenerational justice : level of national debt, child and pension policies, and investment in research)

Government action is the key to reduce child poverty:• Canada must use two measures of child poverty –

relative income poverty measure, and Child Deprivation Index –to guide policy & action to reduce child poverty

What policies should be made to redress child poverty in Canada?

1. Budget allocations: increase Child Tax Benefit to $5000 + inflation

2. Low income families with children under 18, should be allowed to retain more earned income from working Income Tax Benefit and employment insurance

3. There should be an official measurement of child poverty and minimum standards to be met by provinces and territories. 2 measures can be used: commonly used - poverty based on relative (family) income ;new: Child Deprivation Index

• Poverty rate in Canada is almost halved while the rate in USA remains almost unchanged

• Canada spends about 1.25 percent of GDP on family benefits and tax breaks.

How poverty affects children:

• Growing up in poverty limits individual potential, • Reduces country’s economic prosperity and increases

social costs for all, e.g., Courts and social protection Health and hospital services Social assistance

OECD countries:• Lowest child poverty: Nordic countries and the

Netherlands 7%

• Highest : Japan, US & southern and eastern European states

• Child poverty rate: Iceland 5%• Romania 25%.• Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United

Kingdom : 10%-15%