Social Welfare payments face cuts of 5%

ALL social welfare payments should be slashed by 5% as part of swingeing cuts aimed at saving €1.8 billion across social and family affairs payments.

An Bord Snip Nua has recommended a 5% reduction in social welfare rates would achieve savings of €850m. The dramatic proposal, and other recommendations in the report, immediately prompted a storm of criticism from interest groups, who said the recommendation, if put into practice, would condemn many people to a future outside of mainstream society.

Another proposal is that claimants already receiving a primary weekly social welfare payment should not qualify for payment under another scheme, including the family income supplement (FIS), ending what it terms “double payments”, saving €100m. A similar amount would be saved by discontinuing double payments for those on community employment (CE) schemes.