SWS: 1 out of 3 Filipino families transitioned out of poverty

MANILA, Philippines — One out of three Filipino families escaped abject poverty in the last three months of 2017, a Social Weather Stations survey released Friday found.

According to a fourth quarter poll of 1,200 respondents, 31 percent of Filipino families, or about one out of three, made it out of poverty.

Of that figure, 17 percent said they used to be poor five or more years ago while 14 percent said they lived a poor life for one to four years.

Meanwhile, the same SWS survey also revealed that 12 percent of Filipino families polled, or about one out of eight, fell into poverty.

The 12 percent who transitioned into poverty consists of 6.4 percent who disclosed that they used to be “non-poor” five or more years ago, termed by the SWS as “usually poor,” and 6 percent who used to be non-poor one to four years ago, classified by the pollster as “newly poor.”

According to a separate quarterly poll by the SWS, the proportion of Filipino families considering themselves poor slightly eased during the October-December period in 2017.

On the other hand, those who rate the food they eat as poor, termed by the SWS as “food-poor,” steadied in the same period.

“Nationwide self-rated poverty was at its lowest score in the past three years on September 2016 at 42 percent,” SWS reported.

“September 2016 was also the quarter with the highest rate of families who were always non-poor, and is the only quarter where the proportion of families who were always non-poor (30 percent) outnumbered those who were always poor (29 percent),” it added.