6. Why is it so hard for them to get out of the poverty trap and is it a simple solution of getting a job?
It has been increasingly recognized by policy makers that the AHEBN also omits expenditures on key services needed for true social inclusion like investment in training, tuition or basic computer services, which are needed to lift the family out of a low income poverty trap.
MCYS social workers thus use a rough guideline of around $1500 pm for a 4 person family to gauge where absolute poverty exists and government support might thus be needed. Rough calculations show that the basic amount needed is probably closer to $1800-$1900 pm for food, utilities and rent, transport and medical expenses and may approach $2600-3000 pm if computer services, education and training were to be included.
Using these rough benchmarks, the bottom 10% of all resident working age families (some 90,000to 100,000 households) are in clear absolute poverty or hardship. They earn incomes that do not, without public assistance, enable them to meet even the minimum $1250 a month – the updated” poverty lines” lowest measure of basic needs. In 2006, a 4 person family in the lowest 10% of income earning households earned on average only $640 a month although by now this has probably risen to around $800-900 a month.
This is partly because this bottom 10% of all working age households (data only available till 2006) includes non working households who are not able to find full time employment for at least one household member. Nevertheless, even taking only households where at least one member was fully employed, the bottom 10% of such families households earned on average around $1310 in 2008, barely above the updated AHEBN poverty line and significantly below the $1500pm MCYS poverty guideline and $1900pm estimated needed to cover basic needs including medical and transport expenditures adequately.