SVP voices concern over 50% rise in calls

THE Society of St Vincent de Paul has seen a 50% rise in the number of calls to its Dublin help services so far this year, with struggling, middle-class families or the “new poor” emerging as the biggest concern.

Business people who have lost their jobs and are unable to pay their bills are arriving on the charity’s doorsteps.

Wives were openly crying on the airwaves in fear of their husbands being jailed for non-payment of debts, explained SVP president, Mairead Bushnell.

Ms Bushnell added: “Our biggest problem is the middle-class, the new poor, and there are thousands and thousands of them living in despair and misery and they are never mentioned. I’m talking about the small business people who are not getting paid for the services they have given and therefore cannot pay their own bills.

“What have we come to when you can hear on radio wives crying because they’re so terrified that their husbands are going to be put in jail for non-payment of their debts,” she said.

SVP said calls to its Dublin centres had jumped from 12,000 to 18,000 so far this year. Up to 60% of callers to its Dublin services were from homes with children where the most frequent biggest problems were food.

A quarter of all callers to its centres in the capital were first-timers, some were even past donors.

In its pre-budget submission, the charity hit out at politicians and those in power for failing to stop cuts against the vulnerable.

Ireland’s largest charity also called on the Government to protect 17 support areas in the education, social, health and housing sectors which face being axed or cut.

Areas under threat include the welfare Christmas bonus, child benefit, the minimum wage, the dole, special needs assistants, language support teachers, school transport services, the drug payment scheme and the waste collection waiver scheme.

SVP vice president John Monaghan added: “There are serious issues about how we’re treating vulnerable people.”

The charity has proposals to help the less-well off. It wants the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) to be used to tackle social housing, where empty properties taken charge of could be used to house the less well-off.

SVP last year spent €50 million helping the poor, including providing €6m on food, €3m on education support, €3.8m on helping pay energy bills and another €8.7m on direct financial support. It expects to increase spending this year to €55m. There are fears some of its 1,200 help groups may have to turn away those seeking support.

An expected cut in December’s budget in social welfare could push people over the edge, warned Mr Monaghan. “If there are cuts in the dole, it will put serious pressure on the society. I don’t know if we have enough money [for that].”

* www.svp.ie