Social welfare must be increased in Budget, says CORI

THE Government must honour its commitments to increase social welfare payments in the budget so the gap between rich and poor doesn’t grow further.

CORI, the Conference of Religious of Ireland, said as the Government had honoured benchmarking for the public service, it must increase the lowest social welfare rates by €12 a week for single people and €20 for couples in the forthcoming budget, in line with a commitment given as part of the National Anti-Poverty Strategy.

“The recently published Estimates for 2004 were most disappointing.