Families relying on social welfare are sinking below poverty line

FAMILIES dependent on unemployment benefit and lone parent allowances do not have acceptable living budgets, according to a major study.

The report by the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice highlights how some families currently have a weekly shortfall of over €60 below recommended levels.

The report estimates 19,000 households consisting of a lone parent with two children do not have a standard of living to meet their physical, psychological and social needs.

It also warns that a further 166,500 households who have individuals dependent on dole money, risk having an inadequate diet and poor health as well as experiencing debt and social exclusion.

On a more positive note, the study found both existing contributory and non-contributory pensions appeared to meet recommended levels for a low cost but acceptable standard of living.

One of the study’s authors, Sr Margo Delaney, said its main aim was to identify levels at which social welfare payments should not be allowed to fall.

Using a detailed list of over 2,000 regular household products and services it calculated that families consisting of lone parents and people in receipt of unemployment benefit were most at risk of experiencing social poverty.

It also criticised the withdrawal of secondary benefits such as the medical card and back-to-school allowances for acting as a deterrent against people who wished to return to the labour force.

“The cost of child care and increases in rent charges make full-time work economically disadvantageous for the lone parent household,” claims the report. “The lack of affordable and accessible childcare means that the aspirations of lone parents to become independent of the social welfare system, to develop their skills and to provide a role model for their children, will not be realised.”

However, the problem is not confined to families receiving social welfare, as the study showed a family where one parent works full-time and the other on a part-time basis could still experience a weekly shortfall of €60.77 below recommended income levels.

Rates were calculated using normal grocery and other household bills but still excluded expenditure on alcohol, tobacco and petfood as well as the cost of insurance, debts and payments into pension and other saving schemes.

“Ireland is not a third world country,” said another of the report’s authors, Sr Bernadette MacMahon.

“There is need to aspire to more than survival standards for all households, especially those with children.”

She said families who experienced poverty were often blamed for their own situation when the problem remained largely one of totally inadequate income levels.

The report noted that using an EU benchmark that defined social exclusion as households with disposal income less than 60% of the average before housing costs, Ireland had the highest poverty rate in Europe.

John Monaghan, vice-president of the Society of St Vincent de Paul said the Government should address the report’s recommendation that social welfare and national minimum wage rates should be benchmarked to an amount that allows for a low cost but acceptable standards of living.

Mr Monaghan said the reality for many families was even worse than portrayed in the report as it did not included people who experienced debt “which is a real problem.”