Minimum Income Standard Calculator launched

This calculator is a tool which is built on the work already published by the VPSJ earlier this year on a Minimum Income Standard for Ireland. Since 2004 the VPSJ has undertaken work to establish the expenditure necessary for MESL for a range of household types. The recently published study, A Minimum Income Standard (February 2012) establishes the income necessary to afford this standard of living.

The MISC makes the Minimum Essential Standard of Living (MESL) work of the VPSJ readily accessible to the general public and readily applicable to real household situations. The MESL work establishes a social consensus on what members of the public believe is a minimum standard that no individual or household should be expected to live below. With a focus on needs not wants, the concern is more than survival as a MESL is a standard of living which meets physical, psychological and social needs.

The new web app will allow an individual to specify their situation by answering a few basic questions about their circumstances. It then calculates the cost of a Minimum Essential Standard of Living for that specific household, broken down across sixteen areas of expenditure. It will also calculate the income the household needs in order to afford the minimum standard. This is the Minimum Standard for the user’s own situation.

This calculator will be particularly relevant to policy makers, and also to legal, consumer and lending institutions, as well as to organisations assisting families with their household budgets.

The calculator launch was chaired by Professor John Monaghan (SVP)

The calculator launch speakers were, Dr. Noel Smith, Professor of Social Policy and Social Work at University Campus Suffolk, member of the British Minimum Income Standard team and Mr. Michael Culloty, National Development Officer, Social Policy and Communications, MABS National Development Ltd.

VPSJ presenters were Dr. Bernadette Mac Mahon  Director, Mr. Robert Thornton, Research Associate, Ms. Grainne Weld, Research Associate. The respondents were Senator Katherine Zappone, Ms. Noeline Blackwell, Director General FLAC and Mr. John Mark Mc Cafferty, Head of Social Justice and Policy (SVP)

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