People living in Alderney are more at risk of “potential income deprivation” than those in Guernsey, Jersey, and the UK, according to a new report.
Published this month, the Alderney Indicators of Poverty Report is based on data collected in 2022.
It showed that over 20% of Alderney households were at risk of income poverty during that year.
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, that was £18,605 per year in 2022.
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.
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 found that 150 households, or 232 people, have that much money, or less, left each week.
Some of the people in this category are receiving some form of income support with 18.2% not on any at all, according to the report – which also found that just under half of households with an income below the 60% median net income are private renters.
The data collection behind the Alderney Indicators of Poverty Report 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.