Barnardos calls on Government to provide hardship fund for children living in poverty

Barnardos chief executive Suzanne Connolly: 'Almost two-thirds [of parents] are worrying regularly about being able to provide their children with daily essentials such as food, heat, and electricity.' Picture: Mark Stedman

Inflation is pushing families into real deprivation, with almost two-thirds having to go without food and other essentials to make ends meet, children’s charity Barnardos has found.

The charity has called on the Government to introduce a hardship fund to ensure children have access to food, clothing, and fuel.

Survey

Its survey found 70% of parents said cost-of-living increases had negatively affected their children over the past six months, while one in eight parents (12%) reported a "significantly negative" impact.

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Almost two-thirds of parents (63%) said children had to go without essentials such as food, clothing, and heating, over the past six months due to soaring prices.

More than a quarter of parents (28%) have cut back or gone without heat, and almost one in four (23%) have cut back or gone without electricity

Over a third have had to cut back on clothes, the survey found, while one in six has cut back or gone without medical appointments/medicines.

Government measures

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said in the Dáil that significant measures had already been taken by Government to help counter rising costs for basic items.

Taoiseach Micheal Martin told the Dáil that significant measures had already been taken by Government to help counter rising costs for basic items.

Measures to combat the cost of living are to feature prominently in Budget 2023 in October. However, the Government has so far refused calls from opposition parties for a mini-budget to help struggling families sooner.

The war in Ukraine has been driving up food and fuel prices globally and Mr Martin acknowledged that inflation is having a "severe" impact on Irish households.

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The Taoiseach said that Russian President Vladimir Putin's strategy in invading Ukraine was to create an energy and food crisis that would most likely spark “a very serious humanitarian crisis".

Barnardos report

The new Bardardos report, Cost Of Living Crisis — Impact on Children, indicates that the crises are already unfolding in households all over Ireland.

Barnardos commissioned Amárach Research to carry out a nationally representative survey of parents/guardians with children aged 17 or younger living with them.

It found that almost two-thirds (64%) are regularly worrying (with 28% always worrying) about being able to provide their children with daily essentials such as food, heat, and electricity. 

One in five (20%) said they were very worried about having enough money over the next six months to meet the needs of their children

"In all my years with this service I’ve never seen so many families getting to the point of being cut off from electricity, having to make choices about what they are going to go with/without this week," a Barnardos staff member was quoted in the study as saying.

Another said: "All it takes is for one cost to crop up or one thing to break down and they are tipped into financial crisis." 

"You’d be blue with the cold after you visit several houses in a row."

A survey found that almost two-thirds (64%) of parents are regularly worrying (with 28% always worrying) about being able to provide their children with daily essentials such as food, heat, and electricity.

Barnardos chief executive Suzanne Connolly said: “Seventy per cent of parents said that cost-of-living increases have negatively affected their children over the past six months, and almost two-thirds are worrying regularly about being able to provide their children with daily essentials such as food, heat, and electricity.   

These national findings, and our experience on the ground, tell us that more and more families across Ireland are falling into financial distress

“We are calling on the Government to introduce a hardship fund through the Department of Social Protection where families can go to get support paying essential bills when otherwise their children would go without,” she said. 

Benchmarking payments

Barnardos is also calling on Government to benchmark social welfare payments in line with the minimum essential standard of living measurements and to further extend the recent extensions to the fuel allowance to more families and to continue them next year.

Barnardos Project Manager Sharon McCormick said: “Staff are witnessing families going without and cutting back, being forced to choose between having the heating and electricity on and having food in their cupboards.” 

The cost for items such as bread and milk have recently risen by 10%, while energy prices have jumped by more than 100% from some providers since October 2020.