2017 Minimum Essential Standard of Living

The 2017 Minimum Essential Standard of Living (MESL) data will be published at the annual MESL Update seminar on 15th June 2017.

The Update Seminar is being held in Buswells Hotel, from 10.30am to 12.30pm.

The seminar will include:

• A presentation, by the VPSJ research team, of the latest minimum expenditure and income needs data. This will give a summary of the position of households in 2017, providing an analysis of income adequacy and the main findings on current expenditure needs.
  
  
• Responses, putting the MESL data into a wider context, from:
  • Tom Healy,
    Director, Nevin Economic Research Institute
  • Denis Moynihan,
    Principal Officer, Budget & Finance & PRSI Policy, Dept. of Social Protection
• Open forum Q&A session with the participants.

The annual update report presents a detailed analysis of the changing expenditure and income needs for a set of representative household types, in urban and rural areas, summarising the data for over 142 household compositions. The minimum income needs of the households are analysed, assessing the income adequacy of social welfare supports and the minimum wage for multiple employment scenarios.

The publication of the update is attended by a wide range of representatives from organisations across the community and voluntary sector, trade unions, employers’ representatives, public bodies, academics and policy researchers.

The Report and Seminar is organised so as to provide timely information for the many organisations which use the data in their ongoing work, and crucially aligns with annual Government Budget cycle enabling the latest MESL data to inform the contributions of those engaging in the Pre-Budget process.