Millionaire property owners apply for state welfare cash

PROPERTY-rich millionaires in need of financial help and even money for food are seeking assistance at state-funded debt service centres.

Couples and small developers – wealthy on paper after investing during the boom – are unable to access cash and are applying for emergency welfare assistance.

Many are “in denial” and some are being referred immediately for medical care because of stress, according to the Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS).

Galway city MABS coordinator Marie Ward explained: “What has happened is you get a lot of successful business people who were in the building development industry but have gone to the wall. You get them presenting with two properties, three and anything up to five.

“These people don’t know the system. These people have never claimed. (They’re) desperate; these people are lacking money just to go out and get shopping.

“What they’ll tell you is they’re asset-rich but they’ve no liquid cash. They come in with their portfolio and say they have this and this.”

The MABS clients are applying for the Supplementary Welfare Allowance, a €196 emergency weekly welfare payment to help meet basic needs like food and utility bill costs.

While SWA applicants are means-tested, the law states that assets like properties must be deemed to be capable of investment or profitable use if considered part of their income.

Cork’s Society of St Vincent de Paul regional president Brendan Dempsey said there were “hundreds of cases” the SVP were aware of where families had rented out their homes to help pay mortgages and moved into caravans.