Ó Cuív accuses welfare groups of ‘scare tactics’
The minister dismissed analysis of the Government’s four-year plan by Social Justice Ireland as “utter nonsense”, after the group had suggested a single person on benefits could face a weekly drop of €40 or more, and up to €62 a week, by 2014.
Seán Healy, director of Social Justice Ireland, reiterated the claims yesterday. He said: “If contributory and non-contributory pensions are to be excluded and the reduction is spread across all other payments it will mean the equivalent of a reduction of €62 a week for single people and €99 a week for a couple, ie down from €196 a week in 2010 to €134 in 2014 for a single person.
“This would represent a cut of 31% in the income of Ireland’s weak, sick, vulnerable and disabled people. When the cuts of Budget 2010 are included it means welfare recipients are being asked to take up to 35% in cuts in the 2010-2014 period.”
But the minister said: “If we can make substantial progress in these key areas, reductions in individual rates can be minimised over the period of the plan.
“The plan clearly outlines that after the forthcoming 2011 Budget, rate reductions will be the last option and will only arise if other savings do not materialise.
“It is obvious therefore that Social Justice Ireland’s comment in their statement in relation to rate reductions is based on a total misrepresentation of the plan and I call on Social Justice Ireland to withdraw their comments.”
Other groups joined in the chorus of disapproval, however, particularly on the minister’s claim that unemployed people who fail to participate in welfare-to-work programmes will lose their dole payments.
The plan is facilitated by recent legislation allowing for the docking of dole payments if recipients unreasonably refuse to go on a training course arranged by his department or by Fás.
The Irish National Organisation for the Unemployed (INOU) said the plan amounted to scare tactics, particularly when the number of training places was dwarfed by the number of people on the live register.
Elsewhere, the Iona Institute said the four-year plan penalised one-income married couples and stay-at-home mothers, while Barnardos said new information published on the EU Survey of Income and Living Conditions (SILC) showed the Government had abandoned children.
The consistent child poverty rate climbed to 8.7% in 2009 from the 6.3% in 2008.
Barnardos chief executive Fergus Finlay said: “Cuts to minimum wage and social welfare and increases in tax are going to make the situation for many families untenable.”
