Poverty & Inequalities Profile - Falkirk 2010 - Falkirk Council

Debt
Poverty & Inequalities Profile
Falkirk 2009
It is difficult to find a direct comparison to these proportions, but figures from the Scottish Household Survey 2007/08
on the economic activity profile of the population aged 16+ show that:
• 21% of the population were retired compared to 6% of debt clients;
• 3% of the population were unemployed compared to 15% of debt clients;
• 6% of the population were unable to work due to ill health compared to 23% of debt clients.
Housing tenure:
In spite of the high proportion of mortgage debt, only 25.6% of debt clients were owner occupiers while 47.8% rented
from the Council. This compares with 67% of all households who are owner occupiers in Falkirk and 23% who are
Council tenants. However, the proportion of clients who are owner occupiers increased over the period 2006-2010
from 21.3% in 2006/07 to 30.6% in 2009/10. This is almost certainly due to the increase in mortgage debt dealt with.
The proportion of clients renting from other social landlords and privately is about twice the proportion within the
population as a whole, although in both cases the percentage of all clients is around 7%. Perhaps not surprisingly,
Falkirk Council’s clients were more likely to be Council tenants than the CABx clients, while non-householders and
private rented tenants were more likely to have been dealt with by Falkirk and Grangemouth CABx.
Ethnicity:
97.5% of clients were white which is in line with the likely ethnicity breakdown of the population as a whole (the most
recent ethnicity figures for the Council area are from the 2001 Census which showed just over 1% of the population
from an ethnic minority). However, while half the ethnic population in 2001 was Pakistani in origin, only 0.3% of all
clients were Pakistani.
Disability:
The figures on economic activity show that a very high proportion of debt clients are unable to work due to ill health.
This is reflected in the figures on disability where 38.3% of clients had some form of long term illness or disability.
This compares with 16% of the working age population in the 2001 Census who had a limiting long term illness or
disability.
Information is also provided on the type of disability. 17.8% of debt clients had a learning disability or a mental health
problem and 9.1% a physical disability. Falkirk Council clients were more likely than CABx clients to have a disability
of any type.
Income:
As might be expected of those with debt problems, income levels of debt clients tend to be low. Figure 9 shows that
almost 30% of debt clients had an income of less than £6,000 per year. 89% of all clients had an income of less than
£20,000.
Figure 9: Income of Debt Clients
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Income of debt clients
< £6,000 £6-10,000 £10-15,000 £15-20,000 £20-25,000 £25-3,0000 £30-40,000 £40,000 +
Income band