SWS: Filipino families who considered themselves poor up in Q4 of 2019
Credit to Author: The Manila Times| Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2020 08:00:08 +0000
MORE Filipino families, especially in Metro Manila, considered themselves poor in the last quarter of 2019, according to the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey released on Thursday.
The poll from December 13 to 16 among 1,200 Filipino adults nationwide showed self-rated poverty jump by 54 percent or 13.1 million, up 12 percentage points from the 42 percent or about 10.3 million families from last quarter.
“The latest self-rated poverty rate is the highest since the 55 percent in September 2014,” SWS said.
Earlier in 2019, the proportion of self-rated poor families was 38 percent in March and 45 percent in June.
“The resulting annual average self-rated poverty rate for 2019 is 45 percent versus 48 percent for 2018,” the polling firm added.
According to SWS, the 12-point spike in the proportion of self-rated poor families was mainly due to a 16-point rise in Metro Manila, as well as increases of 13 points in Balance Luzon, 11 points in Mindanao and eight points in Visayas.
Self-rated poverty rose in Metro Manila, from 25 percent in September to 41 percent in December, as well as in the rest of Luzon, from 34 percent in September to 47 percent in December.
It also rose by 11 points in Mindanao, from 53 percent in September to 64 percent in December, and also up by eight points in the Visayas from 59 percent to 67 percent.
The same survey also found that of the 54 percent self-rated poor families, 7 percent or an estimated 1.6 million families used to be poor one to four years ago (“newly non-poor”), and another 7 percent or about 1.8 million used to be poor five or more years ago (“usually non-poor”).
The remaining 40 percent percent or 9.7 million families have never considered themselves as poor (“always non-poor”).
Moreover, 10 percent or 2.6 million families used to be non-poor one to four years ago (“newly poor”), and 15 percent (3.7 million households) used to be non-poor five or more years ago (“usually poor”), while 21 percent (5 million families) have always considered themselves as poor (“always poor”).
During the same survey period, SWS also asked the opinion of Filipinos regarding self-rated poverty (SRP) threshold or the minimum monthly budget poor families needed for home expenses in order not to consider themselves poor.
The median SRP threshold is what the poorer half of the poor need for home expenses in order not to be poor.
As of December 2019, the national median SRP threshold is P12,000.
Furthermore, SWS asked its self-rated poor respondents how much they lack (“Magkano pa po ba ang kulang ninyo sa ngayon?”) in their minimum monthly budgets relative to their SRP threshold.
The answer is called the SRP gap. The median SRP gap is how much the poorer half of the poor lack in reaching their stated threshold in order not to consider themselves poor.
As of December 2019, the national median SRP gap was unchanged at P5,000 which is almost half of the SRP threshold.
In the past, the median SRP gap has generally been half of the median SRP threshold. This means that the poorer half of the poor generally lack half of what they need in order to survive.
The December 2019 survey, using face-to-face interviews nationwide, had sampling error margins of ±3 percent for national percentages, and ±6 percent each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. CATHERINE S. VALENTE