Recent data suggests that people living in Alderney are more at risk of ‘potential income deprivation’ than those in Guernsey, Jersey, and the UK.
The risk is worked out based on each household’s income compared to the area’s median income.
Any household with an income below 60% of median wage is considered to be at risk of deprivation. In Alderney, in 2022, that was £18,605 per year.
At that time, 20.6% of people were living in a household below that marker in Alderney, compared to 18.9% in Guernsey, 21% in Jersey, and 21.4% in the UK.
£18,605 per year household income compares to an equivalised overall median wage of £38,191 in Alderney (£734 per week) in 2022.
Having an income of £18,605 per year would give a household of two adults £358 per week to live off, after paying their housing costs, social security contributions, and income tax.
The latest Alderney Indicators of Poverty Report says 150 households, or 232 people, have that much money, or less, left each week.
The Report shows that some of the people in this category are receiving some form of income support with 18.2% not on any at all.
We also know that just under half of those households with an income below the 60% median net income are private renters.
The 2022 Report was published earlier this month. The data collection behind it followed a decision made by the States of Guernsey in 2016 to “improve and broaden the measurement of relative poverty”. Research like that behind the Alderney Indicators of Poverty Report is intended to give a more complete and rounded picture of potential deprivation.
This is the first time this data has been published for Alderney, and the Report states that the Alderney measures have taken longer to establish than the Guernsey measures, because some of the data was more challenging to source.