‘This cut will push us over the edge’

THE impact of budget changes to the family income supplement (FIS) have been highlighted by an anonymous letter writer who has contacted each Dáil TD registering her dismay at the measure.

The woman, whose identity is known to the Irish Examiner, writes how as a mother of four, she is in “extreme distress” at the proposed changes to the means testing of the payment.

The cuts, included in the Social Welfare Bill, will mean the carer’s allowance will be counted as means when calculating the rate of FIS, which is a top-up payment made to lower income families.