Burton plays down agency report on welfare traps

Social Protection Minister Joan Burton has played down a report by a department agency which suggests that welfare traps are leaving people stuck on government benefits.

Ms Burton’s department said yesterday it was examining the Citizens Information Board (CIB) report looking at disincentives for people to return to the workplace.

Officials pointed out that a small number of welfare claimants were in receipt of such payments and that most people out of work wanted to get a job.

The CIB, in its quarterly report, looked at access barriers, poverty traps, and welfare benefits in more than 700 cases, in particular supplements for housing, the family income supplement, and disincentives affecting people in part-time work.

Welfare traps outlined in the report include claimants losing rent supplement if they work over 30 hours a week; people losing jobseeker’s payments if they work more than three days a week; and the family income supplement being paid to those in low-income jobs.

The report comes as Ms Burton examines how to make troika-ordered savings of €440m from her €2bn spend in the October budget. She faces a battle at Cabinet and is unlikely to cut more than €200m from her budget, sources say.

However, some of her Fine Gael colleagues want reductions in welfare payments and more incentives provided to get people back to work.

Ms Burton’s department yesterday stressed that almost 75% of people on the live register receive a personal payment of €188 or less each week. As such, most people were not on extra supplements and are eager to work, officials said.

“For that reason, there is a massive incentive to work,” the department added.