Final Combat Poverty report warns against cuts in social welfare

The Combat Poverty Agency has expressed its opposition to any cut in social welfare rates, saying it would only create new problems further down the road.

The agency published its final annual report today before it is merged with the Office for Social Inclusion as part of Government cutbacks.

The Government has already scrapped the Christmas bonus for social-welfare recipients and some commentators have called for a cut in actual welfare rates in response to falling consumer prices.

However, Combat Poverty says this would be counterproductive from an economic point of view and would create greater social and financial costs for the State in the future.

In presenting his forward to the report, Combat Poverty chairperson Brian Duncan said that the agency had worked tirelessly to address poverty and social exclusion by offering professional, unbiased advice to successive governments.

"The work has contributed to significant changes in public expectations and political ambitions, resulting in new targets, strategies and investments to tackle issues such as child poverty, educational disadvantage, health inequalities and other issues," he said.

"It is to the credit of successive governments that they supported the work, notwithstanding that we may on occasion have been seen as a strong critic of some policies and practices."

He said that he had mixed feelings on the integration of Combat Poverty with the Office for Social Inclusion in the Department of Social and Family Affairs.

"On the one hand, it will end our independence and our ability to speak out publicly on issues that cause and perpetuate poverty.

"On the other hand, it offers the opportunity to devote more resources to address poverty. It also provides better access to key policy makers, which has been a challenge for the Agency in recent years."

Setting the context for this year’s Annual Report, the agency said while the level of poverty fell during the peak of the economic boom, the ‘at-risk’ poverty rate did not significantly change and that children remained the group most at risk.

The report said that children have a higher consistent poverty rate than all of the other life-cycle groups, and account for nearly 40% of all those in consistent poverty.