Spending on social welfare more than doubled in last decade

SPENDING on social welfare more than doubled in the last decade while the number of weekly welfare payment recipients increased by just half.

In the year 2000, social welfare cost €8 of every €100 the country generated but, by 2010, that had rocketed 100% to €16.70 of every €100.

Over the same period, the number of people in receipt of weekly welfare payments, who account for the bulk of the social welfare budget, increased from just over 900,000 to almost 1.38 million, a rise of just 52%.