1 in 5 at risk of poverty ‘in employment’

ONE third of all households at risk of poverty are headed by a person with a job, according to new figures.

More than one in five adults at risk of poverty is in employment, according to the CORI Justice organisation. Households with incomes of less than €11,000 a year for a single person, or €25,000 for a household of two adults and two children are deemed the “working poor”.

CORI Justice director Fr Seán Healy has urged the Government to give priority in Budget 2008 to tackling the issue. “It is unacceptable that many of the working poor are the only people who do not benefit from changes in the annual budget and that the Government does nothing to rectify this,” he said.

Fr Healy, the social justice campaigner, was commenting on CORI Justice’s briefing document published today.

It argues that while social welfare recipients benefit from increases in social welfare rates and people on higher incomes benefit from increases in tax credits, many of the “working poor” do not benefit from the Budget because their tax bill is already lower than their tax credit.

The most recent poverty study conducted by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) shows in 2005, 31% of all households at risk of poverty were headed by somebody who has a job. A total of 21.4% of all adults at risk of poverty were employed, the CSO reported.

CORI Justice argues that Budget 2008 should directly address this “working poor” issue by making tax credits refundable. This would ensure that all workers would benefit from the full value of the tax credits to which they are entitled.