Multiple Disadvantages Among Older Citizens: What a Multidimensional Measure of Poverty Can Show

Abstract

Using the newly created Freedom Poverty Measure, a multidimensional measure of poverty, it can be seen that there were 534,700 individuals who were in freedom poverty, who had either poor health or poor education in addition to having low incomes. This multidimensional disadvantage would not normally be captured by single measures of poverty, such as income poverty measures. Men were significantly less likely to be in freedom poverty than women (OR = 0.63, 95% CI: 0.54–0.74, p < .0001), and the proportion of individuals in freedom poverty increased with age, with those older than 85 being 2.3 times more likely to be in freedom poverty than those aged 65 to 69 years (95% CI: 1.73–3.11, p < .0001). Policy responses to address the marginalization of disadvantaged older people should take a multidisciplinary approach, addressing health inequalities in particular, not just low income.

Keywords:

• capabilities
• education
• health
• income
• poverty

Acknowledgments

Funding for this study came from the National Health and Medical Research Council under a Dora Lush Standard Scholarship.

Notes

1. The Freedom Poverty Measure was created to fill a perceived void in Australian poverty measurement practice. Within Australia, poverty studies have traditionally only looked at measures of low financial resources or income (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1998; Harding, Lloyd, & Greenwell, 2001b; Henderson, 1975; Saunders et al., 2007). As such, Australia can be seen to be lagging behind international poverty measurement practice, particularly in European countries where multidimensional measures of poverty are widely accepted and utilized. Due to the perception of the need for a new multidimensional measure of poverty to be developed specifically for Australia (Community Affairs Reference Committee, 2004; Harding et al., 2001a; University of Queensland Social Research Centre, 2009), to allow the measurement of multidimensional poverty at the individual level, the Freedom Poverty Measure was constructed.

2. The Alkire Foster Method (Alkire & Foster, 2011) guides researchers in the creation of a multidimensional poverty measure for a specific society by giving researchers freedom in the selection of dimensions of disadvantage, indicators, and cutoffs (Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, 2010). The Alkire Foster Method has been utilized by the United Nations in the construction of the United Nations Development Program's Multidimensional Poverty Index, outlined above, and the national governments of Bhutan and Mexico.

3. The income unit is defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics as “a group of two or more related persons in the same household assumed to pool their income and savings and share the benefits deriving from them equitably; or one person assumed to have sole command over his or her income, consumption and savings” (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2005a)

4. The SF-6D captures preferences for different health states and thus yields a preference-based utility score of health (Brazier & Roberts, 2004).