Budget winners found, but not many

STILL living at your family home? Have no children or other people to look after?

Don’t pay a trade union subscription, pension contributions or drive a car?

Aren’t entitled to any social welfare payments?

Earning €26,001, not a cent more or a cent less?

Then break out the bubbly (well, sparkling wine) and limber up for the luxury limo ride — you’ve just become Ireland’s only budget winner.

Amid the savage budget cuts that will either solve the country’s economic problems or condemn us to decades of servitude, one group has bizarrely come out better off.

In a pique of budget nerdom, online financial experts http://taxcalc.ie have revealed that people fitting the above description will in fact be €61 richer after Tuesday’s controversial cuts.

As a direct result of the introduction of the universal social charge — which is taking over from the health and income levies for certain groups — and PRSI system changes, any individuals who meet the above criteria are in fact the Government’s newest, perhaps only, fans.

The figures, detailed on www.thejournal.ie, have been backed up by Catherine Desmond of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC).

“These are people still living at the family home, without children or other dependents, who don’t pay a trade union subscription or drive a car, aren’t entitled to any social welfare payments and are earning exactly €26,001.

“These people, who are making no pension contributions, are in fact better off in terms of their net take home pay in the amount of €61 for the year as a result of changes announced in budget 2011,” she confirmed.

However, judging by the reaction to Tuesday’s budget, the numbers who qualify are likely to be unsurprisingly low.

Among the other individuals to have been hurt least by the measures are Taoiseach Brian Cowen, TDs and Senators.

Despite the Fianna Fáil leader’s salary being reduced from €228,466 to €214,466, further cuts to the minimum wage mean the Taoiseach’s take home pay is 14 times higher than those in the lowest income bracket compared to 13 times higher pre-budget.

While TDs are paid €92,672, it was not felt they should take a further pay cut for the good of the country — or have their numbers reduced.