Welfare cuts ‘devastating’ for poor

THE Government was told yesterday to reassure the poorest in society they will not be hit by future social welfare cuts, after a coalition of support groups said the last budget had plunged many families further into poverty.

The Poor Can’t Pay, which comprises groups such as Focus Ireland, Barnardos and the St Vincent De Paul, said its analysis of the impact of the social welfare cuts announced last month had proved “devastating” for households.

Yesterday a spokesperson for the Poor Can’t Pay, Dr Mary Murphy of NUI Maynooth, said that €1 from every €5 cut by the government in the last budget came from those least able to afford it.

She also criticised the criteria used to implement the cuts, namely the cost of living had fallen by 6.5% in the past year.

Dr Murphy argued that figures from the Central Statistics Office showed that the actual fall in average prices was 5.7% and that when mortgage repayments were excluded then prices actually fell by just 2.2% on average. Prices for the poorest households fell by about 3%, she said, while it fell by 5% between July 2008 and June 2009 for richer households.

Social welfare rates were cut by 4.1% last month, with various reductions introduced which affect areas such as rent supplement and fuel allowance.

Dr Murphy said this had a “cumulative effect” on households and meant many people in consistent poverty falling further behind in arrears with items such as utility bills, nutrition and childcare.

She also criticised the government’s failure to publish the “poverty proofing” of the budget which it typically does at budget time.

“That was not published at budget time and we can only surmise that did not happen because it was not to the government’s liking,” she said.

“If we did not have social welfare in this country 43% of families would experience poverty – with social welfare that is reduced to 15%,” she claimed.