The island must do everything it can to eliminate the ’scourge’ of absolute poverty, Tynwald will hear next week.

Minister for Policy and Reform Chris Thomas has responded to recommendations from the select committee on poverty ahead of its report being placed before the December sitting of Tynwald.

The committee, chaired by Speaker Juan Watterson with members Tanya August-Hanson MLC and Jason Moorhouse MHK, has made eight recommendations, only one of which the Council of Ministers has rejected.

In the foreword to the CoMin response, Mr Thomas said that ’absolute poverty is a scourge and we all need to continue to do everything we can to eliminate it from our island’.

He added: ’The impact of poverty on a person, a family, and on society more generally cannot be underestimated and is wide ranging. Moreover, the effects of poverty can continue well after an individual or family is no longer poor and therefore it is important to focus not just on those above or below a set threshold or measure but also on those who have been poor.’

CoMin has accepted two of the committee’s recommendations, suggested amendments to five, one of which is a parliamentary issue, and rejected one.

The one it rejects outright is that the economic affairs division of the Cabinet Office sits independent from any government department. The CoMin response said that it is ’not appropriate’ because as well as producing economic statistics, it also undertakes other work including policy development.

However, CoMin did recognise that the issue is about ’’actual and perceived interference’ and has agreed to put in new safeguards including the introduction of a publication schedule for all planned statistical releases for the year ahead to be released in January.

CoMin has accepted the recommendations that the government collects data required in order to adopt the Social Metrics Commission’s methodology for measuring poverty and that the economic affairs division should gather the data required to implement the metric.

Amendments to four recommendations include the government developing a framework for the measurement of poverty, working with organisations such as the Social Metrics Commission and the Health Equity Institute to develop a ’meaningful’ Manx measure of poverty and to establish a measurement by December next year.

Third sector

A recommendation the government works with Graih to define ’rough sleeping’ and to produce data on the number of homeless people in the island has been amended. The CoMin response said it recognises the work done by Graih but that ’there are also other important third sector bodies that work in this area’ and that the other bodies are included in the work.

The committee also recommended that the household income and expenditure survey should be carried out every three years. However, CoMin wants that be every five years but that minimum income standards should be ’estimated and published annually’.

Taking a recommendation further than the committee, CoMin has suggested its social policy and children’s committee should act as the government’s lead for poverty.

The last amendment is that while the committee recommended the policy review committee should scrutinise the government’s work on poverty, the government wants the social affairs policy review committee to do so.