SWS: 1 in 3 families escaped poverty

MANILA, Philippines — One in three Filipino families has escaped poverty in recent years, according to a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey released yesterday.

The first quarter survey, conducted from March 23 to 27, showed that 30 percent of the 1,200 respondents said they no longer identify their families as poor unlike in previous years.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque Jr. welcomed the results as he revealed that the Duterte administration hopes to further reduce poverty incidence among Filipinos while pushing more inclusive growth in the next four years.

“We have broadened access to free education, medicine and healthcare and other basic services to ensure that our people directly benefit from the country’s economic gains,” he said.

He added that the Duterte administration aims to reduce the vulnerability of Filipino families through its conditional cash transfer program, job facilitation and implementation of microenterprise projects.

Based on the results, 11.8 percent said they have escaped poverty in the last four years (newly non-poor), while another 18.2 percent said they used to be poor five or more years ago (usually non-poor).

In December last year, 14.1 percent said they escaped poverty in the last four years while 16.8 percent said they used to be poor five or more years ago.

The recent survey also showed 27.9 percent saying they never experienced poverty, higher than the 25.1 percent who said the same thing in December.

Among those who identified their families as poor, 12 percent or one in every eight said they have fallen into poverty in recent years.

A total of 6.2 percent of the respondents fell into poverty in the past four years (newly poor), while another 6.3 percent said their families were not poor five or more years ago (usually poor).

This is steady from the 6 percent and 6.4 percent who said that they are newly poor and usually poor, respectively, in December.

The remaining 29.2 percent of the respondents said their families have always been poor, lower than the 31.1 percent who said they were always poor in the previous survey.?SWS earlier said that the self-rated poverty in the country went down to 42 percent or 9.8 million Filipino families in the first quarter of 2018. This is two points below the 44 percent or 10 million Filipino families who considered their families poor based on a similar survey conducted in December last year. 

The number of Filipinos who said that their families are “food-poor” – or those who rated themselves as poor based on the food they eat – also declined to 29 percent or 6.7 million families, from 32 percent or 7.3 million in December.

The survey has an error margin of +/- three percent for the national percentages. – With Christina Mendez