Charity: Cuts will deprive children of meals

CHILDREN will literally miss out on meals or face the electricity being turned off if the Government implements social welfare cuts in the budget, children’s charity Barnardos warned.

The head of the charity, Fergus Finlay, also said he hoped thousands of people would take to the streets to protect the lot of the poor.

The charity warned that children as young as six who have said they want to kill themselves are being put on waiting lists due to cuts that have already taken place.

At the launch of the Dreading December campaign, Barnardos’ Southern Region Project coordinator Carmel O’Donovan said:

* More people were turning to moneylenders and facing waiting lists of up to six months to meet with the Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS).

* Children attending the charity’s early years services are asking for extra food on Mondays, as they are hungry after the weekend.

* There is strong anecdotal evidence of increased domestic violence, yet, because social services are stretched to the limit, many serious cases are on waiting lists.

* Children in desperate need of speech and language therapy, or child and adolescent mental health treatment, are also on lengthy waiting lists for assessment.

* Families face hard choices when it comes to paying bills, and visit pharmacies seeking a diagnosis rather than pay to visit a GP as they face a six-month wait for medical cards.

Ms O’Donovan said: “More cuts will mean even more hardship for families.”

Barnardos director of advocacy Norah Gibbons said despite suggestions that the last budget would not impact on the poor, social welfare cuts actually led to a €31 drop in the weekly household budget for a family of four wholly reliant on social welfare.

That family would face a further €13.53 weekly cut if the Government imposes a 5% cut to child benefit or, in her words, a box of cereal, fruit and vegetables, or one meal.

A 10% cut would mean a €45.87 weekly cut for the same family, while a lone parent with two children would also face a serious drop in relative income if similar cuts were imposed.

Ms Gibbons said the Celtic Tiger years had seen the first break in inter-generational poverty for some families.

“It was easier to say things can be different because they could see that in their own communities,” she said. “Now we are seeing that all slipping away.”

Barnardos said the Government needed to avoid making cuts that would affect those already struggling financially.

It recommended:

* Ring-fencing funding for the continuation of the free pre-school year.

* Maintaining current child benefit levels and those of other welfare payments.

* Reducing tax breaks for the wealthy.

* Boosting staff levels for child and adolescent mental health services.

Mr Finlay said he hoped thousands of people would march to protect the lot of the poor, as children neglected now are likely to be the same people struggling with life or in prison in 15 years’ time.

* www.barnardos.ie.