Rent arrears and overholding applications, Ireland, 2019-2021
Ireland’s COVID-19 eviction moratorium was enacted on 27 March 2020. It was both broad and strong, prohibiting landlords from giving termination notices on any grounds and stopping all evictions for the duration of the (initial) emergency period. Rent increases were also prohibited. These prohibitions expired 1 August 2020. However, provision was then made for tenants in COVID-related hardship to claim, by declaration to their landlord and the Residential Tenancies Board, protection from eviction and rent increases until July 2021 and, if termination proceedings were taken then at that stage, a longer 90-day notice period. The declaration required the tenant to make contact with advice services to assist making repayment plans. The Irish Government did not implement new rent relief schemes, but did change eligibility rules to make the Rent Supplement payment available to persons receiving the Pandemic Unemployment Payment.
Tribunal applications for rent arrears and termination orders, New Zealand, 2020-21
In New Zealand in 2020, a national moratorium was legislated that for three months stopped the commencement and enforcement of eviction proceedings on most grounds. Prohibited grounds included the landlord or an incoming purchaser using the premises for their own housing, reflecting the heavy restrictions on household movement imposed by New Zealand’s public health orders. Termination proceedings for anti-social behaviour and other urgent grounds remained allowable, as well as for rent arrears – but only where tenant arrears equated to more than 60 days. Rent increases were prohibited, and the government encouraged rent negotiations between landlords and tenants in hardship, but did not set out a special regime or guidance for them. It also temporarily doubled (to NZ$4,000) the maximum amount lent to tenants under its Rent Arrears Assistance scheme. The moratorium expired 25 June 2020. This figure shows that applications by landlords for rent arrears and termination orders dropped by…
Pre pandemic tenure security and rental affordability
This table shows the crisis responses that were implemented in Australia, Canada, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Spain, the UK and the USA specifically aimed at protection for rental housing residence. It gives a high-level overview of the relative levels of regulatory assurance of these aspects of renting for each of these countries, necessarily passing over some significant differences in the legal mechanisms used between countries, and some significant differences between jurisdictions within countries. For indicators of tenure security, the table indicates whether landlords may take termination proceedings without disclosing reasons or where these may be invoked only on certain legally prescribed grounds, and the degree to which tenants’ circumstances are considered by the relevant tribunal in termination proceedings. This may be limited by laws that make termination in some rent arrears and no-grounds proceedings mandatory (as in most jurisdictions in Australia, the UK and the…
Income protection variation
This table asks which types of income protection variation measures precipitated by the COVID-19 crisis predominated in Australia, Canada, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Spain, the UK and the USA. It also looks at whether pre-existing policies were important, if there is any evidence that specific policies were prematurely ended (i.e. where the factors originally prompting intervention remained in evidence); and whether policies introduced as a result of the pandemic are likely to continue in the longer term.
Gross Domestic Product, real, seasonally adjusted, domestic currency - indexed (Q4 2019=100)
This graph shows that the UK and Spain were more seriously affected economically by COVID-19 than Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and the USA.
Cumulative COVID-19 deaths per million population (as at 31 January 2022)
This graph shows how many deaths from COVID-19 were experienced per million head of population as at 31 January 2022 for the USA, UK, Spain, Germany, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It also shows the average number of cumulative deaths around the world. It shows how the pandemic has been much more series in the USA, the UK and Spain than in the other northern hemisphere countries.
Covid, inequality and poverty in 2020 & 2021: How poverty and inequality were reduced in the COVID recession and increased during the recovery. Build back fairer, report 3
Covid, inequality and poverty in 2020 & 2021: How poverty and inequality were reduced in the COVID recession and increased during the recovery. Build Back Fairer series, report no. 3 Read or download the report at: https://bit.ly/3LWJtJn
Change in number of workers employed by occupation (000s)
This graph shows that, from August 2020 to August 2021 (centre bars): * The number of people employed in lower-paid occupations rose by 71,000; * The number in middle-paid occupations fell by 5,000; * The number in higher-paid occupations rose by 251,000.
Percentage of people receiving JobKeeper and COVID Supplements by household income groups
This figure shows shows how COVID income support payments were distributed among households ranked by income in 2020.
JobKeeper Payment mainly lifted the incomes of middle income-households at risk of losing their jobs, and Coronavirus Supplement lifted the incomes of low-income households on income support payments.
Towards the end of the recession in September 2020:
* Around three quarters (76%) of JobKeeper Payments went to the middle 60%;
* A similar proportion of the Coronavirus Supplement (70%) went to the lowest 40%.
* The highest 20% received just 19% of the value of JobKeeper Payment and 6% of that of Coronavirus Supplement.
Impact of past recessions on household after-tax incomes
This figure shows changes in household after-tax incomes brought about by the recessions of the early 1980s and 1990s (left and right-hand clusters).