About Child Poverty

How does living in poverty effect children?

How does living in poverty effect children?

• Being at risk of poor physical development and health problems because of a lack of nutritious food
• Living in inappropriate housing
• Not being able to afford recreational opportunities that can help develop personal interests and skills
• Lacking confidence and self-esteem
• Feeling ashamed for living in poverty and enduring social stigmatization and stereotypes
• Feeling excluded from socializing with peers and from participating in school and community life
• Higher risk for not completing high school

Read what children said when they were asked what poverty meant to them: Poverty Is...

How is poverty defined?

What we consider "poverty" depends on our values and beliefs, and the kind of society we believe we should have. CPAN, along with many other groups who work on child poverty issues, is committed to an inclusive society, where every child has a decent chance at life.

Although poverty means a lot more than how much money you have, measures of poverty in Canada are based on income. We have no official "poverty line." However, Statistics Canada uses different measures to track the rate and depth of poverty.

The Low Income Cut-Off (LICO) is a relative definition of poverty. It compares household income and spending patterns against the income and spending patterns of the general population. Households that spend disproportionate amounts of their pre-tax income on food, clothing and shelter - 20% above the average family - are considered low income. LICOs vary by household and population size.

The LICO is a reflection of what Canadians believe is a reasonable estimate of what it costs to live. It is also closely related to children's well-being. Most policy analysts use the LICO to measure poverty in Canada.

The Market Basket Measure (MBM) is an absolute definition of poverty. It compares total household income against the total cost of a basket of specified goods and services. Households with incomes that are less than the cost of basic goods and services are considered to be poor or low income.

The items in the basket were determined by consultations with policy analysts and citizens in the year 2000. The MBM does not include child care. For rural and small urban communities, it includes the cost of transportation (one five-year-old vehicle per family and 1500 litres of gas per year).

For families in Ontario communities with fewer than 30,000 people (as in Renfrew County), the 2003 LICO and MBM are shown in the table below.

2003 LICO and MBM

How many children in Renfrew County are poor?

The number of children living in poverty changes as economic factors such as unemployment, wages, inflation and social supports change. According to Statistics Canada (2001 Census) over 2,745 children under age 17 in Renfrew County were living in families with incomes below the LICO in 2001. This represents 12 percent of all children in Renfrew County.

There are deep pockets of poverty in Renfrew County where children are more likely to live in families with low incomes. The child poverty rate for Pembroke is 26.2%. Therefore children who live in Pembroke have a one in four chance of living in poverty. Every fifth child in Renfrew, every sixth child in Bonnechere Valley, and every seventh child in Arnprior live in families with low incomes. Children in Deep River and McNab/Braeside currently have the lowest rate of families living in poverty (only one in 20).

See Statistics Canada, Community profile for Renfrew County and District Health Unit, 2000: http://www12.statcan.ca

Why are children in Renfrew County poor?

Children are poor because their parents are poor. Parents are poor for a variety of reasons. These include: Precarious employment, low wages, disability, lack of access to employment insurance benefits (EI), and low social assistance rates, as well as the cost of food, housing, heat hydro and rent.

Employment

People with full-time jobs that last all year are the least likely to be living in poverty. However, in Renfrew County barely over half of people who are working have full time jobs that last for the full year.

Everyone else works in jobs that are part-time, seasonal, temporary, on contract or are self-employed (precarious employment). Our unemployment rate (the proportion of people available for work who can't find jobs) is slightly higher than the average for Ontario as a whole.

See Statistics Canada, Community profile for Renfrew County and District Health Unit, 2000: http://www12.statcan.ca

Even having full time job doesn't mean you can escape poverty; it takes a family of four living in Renfrew County, 65 hours a week at minimum wage to meet the poverty line. Most families living in poverty are living in deep poverty, they earn an average of $14,000 per year.

Things that affect income include;

• lack of well paying jobs (as above)
• low minimum wage (as of April 1, 2008, $8.75 an hour)
• low social assistance rates (even with rate increases, well below the poverty line)
• few people are now eligible for Employment Insurance because they don't work enough hours to meet the current eligibility requirements
• much employment in Renfrew County is seasonal
• rising costs of rent, heat, gas, etc. put more pressure on overall expenses

Income

Wages in Renfrew County are lower than the provincial average. Average earnings in Renfrew County were less than 80 percent of average earnings in Ontario.

Many low paid workers earn only the minimum wage or barely above. As of April 1, 2008, the General Minimum Wage in Ontario is $8.75 an hour. A family of four would need to work 65 hours/week, 52 weeks/year at the minimum wage to get up to the (before tax) Low Income Cut Off (LICO). If there is only one earner in the family, he or she would have to earn $14.00/hour, 40 hours/week, 52 weeks/year to reach the poverty line.

See Statistics Canada, Community profile for Renfrew County and District Health Unit, 2000: http://www12.statcan.ca

Disability Benefits

Children may live in poverty because benefit rates for parents are low. Parents who had well paying jobs before they became disabled may be eligible for workers' compensation or long term disability benefits under a private plan which could in some cases bring them up to and beyond the poverty line. However, most families who must rely on Ontario disability benefits live below the poverty line. The maximum benefit for a family of four with a disabled parent on Ontario Disability Support Program benefits is $21,240, which is 88% of the Low Income Cut Off. This is 12% below the poverty line.

Benefits

Employment Insurance

Because eligibility for Employment insurance benefits depends on having enough hours of regular work in the year before you lose your job, few unemployed people in Renfrew County are eligible for unemployment insurance benefits. Most must live on Ontario Works benefits while they are looking for work.

The maximum Ontario Works benefit for a family of four with two adults and two children under age 13 is $14,580/year, which is 60% of the Low Income Cut-Off. This is almost 10,000 below the poverty line.

Single Parenting

Most children growing up in poverty live in families with two parents. However, thirty-seven percent of all children living in a home that is run by a single mother (unmarried, divorced, widow, etc.) live in poverty. This figure is even higher for children under six. Seventy-nine percent of children under the age of six who are being raised by a single mother live below the poverty line.

This is significantly higher than the provincial average, and reflects not only the depressed wages for women (women workers earn 63% of what men earn in Renfrew County), but also the lack of affordable, reliable child care.

Childcare

Affordable, quality childcare is needed for several reasons:

• help parents return to the workforce,
• helps children develop good self esteem, positive social skills.

Children deserve to be cared for in a safe, nurturing environment where they will learn social skills, skills that they will carry through life.

Lack of childcare can lead to home injuries, children missing meals and missing opportunities for structured play and learning development.

Quality childcare and child programs are essential to healthy development of children and youth, whether it's in the form of childcare when parents are at work, or child development centres that parents can go to as well. The problem is, that in rural areas such as Renfrew County or when parents work shift work, many parents have to rely on informal, unlicensed caregivers.

What does poverty mean for our children?

As we have seen, there are many reasons why children are poor in Renfrew County. For children growing up in poverty, the reasons don't matter. The impact does.

Growing up in a poor family does not condemn children to a life of illness and failure in school. However, it greatly increases the risk of suffering from these, and as a result increases the risk of not being able to live up to their full potential. Children in poverty do not have the same chance at life as children in families with higher income; they also face many more barriers.

Health

It is not surprising that children who live in poverty suffer both physically and mentally more than children who come from high income homes. They are more likely to be hospitalized, suffer from more dental problems, and (if they are working poor or in precarious employment families) have no benefits.

Physical Health

Research shows that children in low-income families have poorer physical health than their neighbours in higher income families.

• Low birth weight and poor health of their parents can give them a disadvantage before they are even born.
• They may not have enough food to eat. Forty percent of the people who use food banks are children.
• They have less access to health care services, especially rural communities like Renfrew County with a lack of both physicians and public transportation.
• Poverty in childhood leads to a higher risk of heart disease and other chronic illness in adulthood, thus perpetuating the cycle of poverty.
• Lack of income makes it difficult to afford over-the-counter medication, increasing the likelihood of prolonging the illness or complications.

Nutritious Food

• Children need to have enough nutritious food for their developmental needs (physical, mental, social, and emotional).
• 96% of low income families have experienced hunger; among children who have gone hungry 32% go without food on a regular basis.
• When children are hungry they can't learn. Children need nutritious food so that they concentrate better in school and be more attentive to tasks.

Hunger

42% of food bank users in Ontario are children, and an informal survey of Renfrew County food banks shows that we are no exception.

Low wage and social assistance incomes mean that children aren't getting the nutritious healthy food they need. Families can't afford fresh fruits and vegetables, and can usually only afford cheaper, more processed foods and/or fattier meats.

Poor nutrition negatively affects our children's health.

Housing

Children need (and deserve) to live in safe affordable housing; unfortunately children living in poverty are twice as likely to live in substandard housing and conditions. Some issues that they deal with are;

• Contaminants such as lead, mould, and asbestos.
• Unsafe living conditions such as poor structural integrity, overcrowding, dampness, insect infestations, lack of electricity water and/or heat.

These all create health risks.

There is the belief that there is no homelessness in Renfrew County. Homelessness does exist! Families have to share homes, people couch surf, and some are constantly on the brink of eviction.

Average rent in Renfrew County in 2001 was $623. This is two weeks' earnings for a minimum wage parent. Since then all housing costs have gone up - taxes, hydro, oil and gas, water and so on.

Waiting lists for rent-geared to income housing are long, and it can take years to get a unit.

Poor children are more likely to have problems because of their housing.

• They may live in neighbourhoods that are less safe, partly because of crime rates but more significantly because of poor housing and exposure to hazardous environmental toxins like lead.
• Poor families are at greater risk of losing their housing, because of the lack of affordable housing and because of rising costs of hydro, gas and oil.
• Twenty percent of children taken into care by Children's Aid are there because their parents could not provide housing.

Transportation

Many low income families that live in rural communities such as Renfrew County find transportation to be a barrier

• Lack of public transportation
• Cost of owning and operating a reliable vehicle is out of reach for some (food or vehicle)
• Lack of, or low credit rating can make it difficult for some to get loans to purchase vehicles

Lack of transportation to bigger towns/cities forces families to pay the asking price for goods and services (no chance of looking for bargains).

Lack of transportation hinders people's ability to look for and get decent, higher paying jobs (or sometimes any job).

Education

Education is key to breaking the poverty cycle. Hunger, insecure and unsafe housing, and poor physical health contribute to an increased risk of having difficulties in school. Poor children are just as intelligent as other children, but poverty can lead to higher stress levels, poor concentration, lower functioning vision, hearing, speech, mobility, dexterity and cognition.

Because of the many barriers that they face children who live in poverty are more at risk of having lower self esteem and self worth, and have a higher incidence of serious mental health problems and behavioural difficulties in school.

Some children do not reach their full potential due to lack of concentration, low self esteem, and social exclusion (among other things).

Children feel socially excluded when they...

• can't take part in activities like pizza or hot dog day.
• are ashamed of their clothes.
• are bullied.

Children can't learn when they are hungry; they can't concentrate, and feel stupid (see cycle of poverty). Poor youth are more likely to drop out of school, which makes it hard for them to ever escape poverty.

Children can't learn as well when there are problems in the home such as; when their parents are stressed, fighting or non-supportive (working long hours, worried about finances, health issues etc.)

All these things make it hard to learn.

Even if they do work hard and graduate there is a lower chance of going on to post secondary education due to increases in post secondary education fees. Obviously, if they have not graduated or have not been able to take part in post secondary education, the chances of getting a decent paying job are slim to none, increasing the likelihood that their children will also have to grow up living in poverty (cycle of poverty).

Access to good education increases the chance that children will get ahead in life, here in Renfrew County we have good and caring schools, but they are constrained by provincial budgets which mean they have to impose school fees, including for some courses.

Recreation

Many people may think that extracurricular activities etc. means just having fun. These are extremely important to a child's development. Recreation helps build self esteem, develops new skills, nurtures talent, and develops competencies and creativity. Participating in recreational activities (physical and cultural) has been proven to improve academic performance and helps children achieve positive life outcomes. It also exposes them to positive role models.

Poor children are much less likely to take part in recreational activities in their communities, because of limited finances, transportation issues, and poor social skills/self-esteem. Therefore, they miss out on the opportunity to learn new social skills such as teamwork and to be recognized as an important part of the community. They do not receive the positive role modeling and mentoring that they need to be successful in life. This puts them at greater risk of social isolation.