The main cause of deterioration of welfare in 2011, 70.9% of Kazakhstani people believe to be the rise in prices amid stable income

/IRBIS, October 25, 2011/ - In order to explore the subjective assessment of the standard of living Kazakhstan Agency for Statistics in July 2011 held a one-time survey of 12,000 households with different income levels. Screening program should identify the subjective assessment of the main factors influencing the causes and conditions for the existence of poverty as a social phenomenon. The peculiarity of this material is that the observed parameters of the standard of living are reflected not only in quantitative but also qualitative characteristics obtained directly from respondents. For classification of the population into one of the levels of certain members of the household element of subjective assessments of their material well-being (income) and income were used. As described, according to income level in the category of middle- income countries identify themselves as 52.4% of surveyed households, which is 4.6 percentage points less than in 2010 and there was positive growth of the proportion of people whose income is above average or a sufficient level of security with a relatively high income (an increase of 10.4 and 1.8 percentage points respectively). With the increase of size of family a tendency of reduction of the proportion of households with low estimates and bucking the trend toward households with the highest estimate of income was noted. With the increase in the level of material well-trend the average household size increased from 3.0 to 4.1 people. The main causes of household poverty survey data are low wages and an inability to find a permanent job in the community. In addition, households with the smallest size (of a person) of one of the major causes of poverty indicated a low pension, with the largest size (5 persons or more) - low pay. The survey found that among the most common household deprivation - this is the inability to conduct an annual holiday away from home, with the proportion of urban households that reported a loss of 7.8 percentage points higher than rural (15.5% and 7.7%, respectively). Percentage of poor households who can not pay for receiving a private doctor and can not even buy cheap furniture is prevailing. Some of the hardships associated with the needs of children (food, clothing, etc.), marked by a large number of rural households than urban households. For most households surveyed, both in town and village, the main source of livelihood is employment, and for 47.0% of rural households main source of income was the consumption of products derived from subsidiary farming. Most households with high-security main source of livelihood note employment in private institutions (71.1%), retired (51.5%) and self-employment (45.0%). There should be specific to the survey, as well as the fact that 36.7% of households rated their level of income as the highest (enough to buy everything one needs) are composed of retired people. Among the respondents, 94.0% of households do not have own business, and the main reasons for this, regardless of place of residence (urban, rural) have the lack of finances (32.9%) and lack of necessary skills (9.6%). According to the survey only 16.9% of households had savings, while the growth of wealth is rapidly increasing proportion of households with savings and the ability to live longer on these savings in the absence of income. For most households, the savings are intended to unforeseen circumstances, family celebrations or rituals, treatment, child education expenses and unprofitable period. Over the past year, the majority (54.8%) of households said the immutability of their well-being, whereas in the past 3 years and 10 years took a leading position statement "improved" - 54.0% and 64.0% respectively. As shown by periods with the largest intervals, increase assessment of income contributes to the trend of increasing the proportion of households claiming to improve their welfare and, conversely, with the fall of assessing the level of income increases the proportion of households claiming the "deterioration" and "constancy" of their welfare. The main reasons of improvement of the welfare of the population, regardless of domicile is the increase in wages, pensions and job, while the latter is the main cause of improving the welfare of the poor. Causes deterioration of living standards in 2011 with a clear advantage among other causes was the rise in prices with stable income (70.9%), poor health (25.9%) and lower wages (22.3%). Examining the reasons for the deterioration in welfare type settlement, it should be noted that for urban households most important reason is the rise in prices during the previous income (74.7%), which 12.9% points higher than in rural areas is. With a significant difference depending on where you live is observed among households of such factors of deterioration of their material wealth as a reduction of wages, failure in business, change of residence, and high interest on loans, which are more susceptible to households in the city. Respondents' opinion regarding the estimated change in its fortunes in the future are different, with 42.1% of households are not sure, but assume that they will live better, and 36.4% of households believe in a better future. It should be noted that the possibility of a deterioration in the background of low levels of all surveyed households indicated 7.9% of households with low levels of security, and 10.6% of households who consider themselves well-off. As noted, the assessment of the outlook for living standards is closely related to the achieved level of welfare. The higher the current level of material wealth, the greater the proportion of respondents believes that life will be better. If in households with low income only 8.0% are optimistic, then the level of positive assessments of their prospects in life among the highest income households increased to 78.7%. "Over the past year, the majority of households have changed their behavior by changing attitudes to the habits, both economic and social issues. In general, changes from last year, significantly affected the behavior of households with low levels of material prosperity. Most of them became limit spending on entertainment services, are less likely to meet with friends and stopped to buy some non-food products", - was stated in the message. [2011-10-25]