SVP calls for rise in fuel allowance and social welfare payments to ease poverty risk

(Left to right) Nessan Vaughan, Vice-Chair SVP Social Justice Committee, Dr Tricia Keilthy, SVP Head of Social Justice and Policy, Issy Petrie, SVP Research and Policy Officer and Rose McGowan, SVP National President at the launch of the The Society of St Vincent de Paul (SVP) Pre-Budget Submission “The Cost of Surviving”. In the upcoming Budget, SVP is urging the Government to commit to benchmarking social welfare rates against the cost of a minimum standard of living. Photo: Chris Bellew / Fennell Photography

If the right decisions aren’t made in the upcoming Budget, there is a “real risk” that we will see a “deepening of poverty and households being pushed into poverty for the first time”, a leading charity has warned.

At its pre-Budget submission announcement in Dublin, the Society of St Vincent de Paul (SVP) urged a range of measures to support and protect the hardest-hit households in the cost-of-living crisis, including a €20 rise in core social welfare payments, an increase to the Fuel Allowance payment by €15 per week, while also increasing the thresholds for the working family payment.