Struggling families’ Communion payment slashed

The Government is set to slash exceptional needs payments for Communions and Confirmations to thousands of struggling families.

The payment is to be cut from an average of €242 to a maximum of €110 and only for “hardship” cases.

The Department of Social Protection has also ordered “kit-out” grants for home furnishing be stopped, except to those in local authority-owned housing.

Welfare officers were told in recent days to limit payments to the less well-off for religious ceremonies and for furniture kit-out claims as part of plans to reduce the annual €63m bill in exceptional needs payments (ENPs).

ENPs are meant to be once-off or exceptional need funds for people on social welfare.

However, Joan Burton, the social welfare minister, has targeted reductions in a raft of payments, with pressure from EU lenders to reduce her department’s spend. She wants to cut ENPs by €8.5m this year.

New guidelines sent on Jan 27 to supplementary welfare officers, who decide on claims, say payments for Communions and Confirmations must be cut to €110 per person, and only for “exceptional needs” cases.

Welfare claimants received an average €242 each in such payments last year, with €3.4m paid to 14,000 claimants, department figures reveal.

Struggling parents whose children are set to make their Confirmation in the coming weeks are expected to be particularly badly hit by the new rules.

The Irish Examiner has obtained the circular to officers, which states that monies for religious ceremonies should be limited to “cases of significant hardship only”.

It says efforts must be made to “ensure that the supplementary welfare allowance scheme is responding to financial need and not occasions”.

Officers have also been ordered to stop kit-out furnishing payments, except where the claimant is living in local authority-owned housing. These funds are given to social housing tenants where they have insufficient money to furnish properties.

Claimants received an average €1,145 each in kit-out payments last year, with 7,769 people claiming about €8.9m.

The circular says payments towards the cost of furnishing should only be considered where the accommodation is either built or purchased by the local authority.

It also says payments should not be used to repeatedly furnish the same accommodation.

Campaigners for the unemployed and less well-off expressed concern at the cut in emergency payments.

“It’s going to have a severe impact. Most people looking for Confirmation and Communion payments have no savings and go to welfare officers or us or money lenders,” said St Vincent de Paul vice-president John Monaghan.

“We assume more will now come to us but it’s limited what we can do. The kit-out fund is an issue too. Many people move into places that are unfurnished or have a cooker or washing machine that doesn’t work.

“When you start to cut back ENPs, you push more and more people into poverty and that’s especially difficult at this cold time of year.”