Elaine Loughlin: Outdated social welfare rules keep working poor stuck in a poverty rut

It was also acknowledged the current system of jobseeker's allowance, based on an outdated assumption that people work five days a week between the hours of nine and five, does not take into account the gig economy, flexible arrangements, and modern family life.

Appearing before an Oireachtas committee, Niall Egan, assistant secretary in the Department of Social Protection, said officials were aware a "disincentive" to take up work existed, but also pointed to a complexity in the current system that had resulted in "gaps and issues" for those working but still barely surviving.

For one in five children, growing up in poverty is the reality, when housing costs are accounted for.

This, according to the ESRI, amounts to more than 225,000 children, with Ireland ranked 16th out of 27 countries in the European Union in terms of its after-housing cost poverty rate for children.

Despite a booming economy, the rate has remained largely unchanged in recent years, and differs little from that seen from 2007 to 2009 when the financial crisis was unfolding.

This Government has committed to bringing consistent child poverty down to 3% by the end of 2030, with targeted measures identified as a way of providing a financial cushion to the most marginalised. 

The ESRI estimates current cash payments lift 157,000 children out of income poverty, and without this support system, the ‘child at risk of poverty’ rate would be 10 percentage points higher.

A consultation document on the establishment of a new working age payment for unemployed and low-income employees is currently out for public consultation, and proposes to eradicate a "cliff-edge" of payments.

In tandem with this, a targeted child payment for low-income families is being proposed to replace the current child support payment and working family payment.

The current means-tested jobseeker's allowance is available to anyone over the age of 18 and under 66, but they must work three days a week or less, or be unemployed.

It means a single parent might be in a position to work five mornings a week while their children are at school but can't. Other groups, such as people with a disability, can also be impacted by the three-day rule.

Highlighting how two families in very similar circumstances can qualify for very different level of supports, Mr Egan told politicians: "If one family is on jobseeker’s allowance, and works 20 hours over three days, they can get a €60 disregard, and they can get a tapered reduced — depending on their income from employment — amount of jobseeker’s allowance. But if another family works 20 hours over five days, they're not entitled to jobseeker’s allowance.”

He added both families could bring the same amount of earnings into the home each week, but are treated very differently by the system.

The working family payment, in contrast to jobseeker's allowance, is a weekly tax-free payment for employees with children who are on low pay. To qualify for the payment, the average weekly family income must be under a certain amount for the family's size. The family must be also working at least 38 hours per fortnight.

It brings up another anomaly, where some low-income families can work too few hours to qualify for the working family payment, but across too many days to qualify for jobseeker’s allowance.

Groups, such as Social Justice Ireland, have long tried to highlight the obvious socio-economic challenges, particularly when it comes to balancing work and the giving of care, faced by single parent households.

Describing it as "complex", Mr Egan added "we have seen people struggle to make informed decisions about which payment, because their hours of work may change week on week, which payment to avail of. Should they be on the working family payment, should they be on jobseeker's, and that can change week on week, depending on their hours of work. "

In 2025, Working Family Payments recipients received on average €180 per week, with the majority of claims from families with one or two children.

However, ESRI research has found up to 56,000 families could be eligible but are not availing of the support.

It may be almost a decade since Leo Varadkar, then social protection minister, launched the highly controversial “Welfare Cheats Cheat Us All" publicity campaign, but it is clear stigmatisation of those who avail of State supports remains, combined with a lack of awareness.

"There's an element of stigma," said Karen Kennedy, principal officer at Department of Social Protection.

"Research would indicate that some people do not want to be seen, especially if they are working families, may not want to be seen receiving social welfare supports, and part of this part of the proposal is considering a more universal, not fully universal, but having a wider standalone targeted child payment, which could help reduce that," she said.

Payments, when devised, aim to reflect the needs of those they intend to support, but for a long time now, the system has not corresponded with the reality of work.

All in all, it’s a complex system, and one those who just want to get out to work to feed their families don't have time to navigate.

In 2015, when then senator Katherine Zappone called for changes, she was told  overhauling the criteria could have significant cost implications for the jobseeker's schemes.

The current Government does recognise the need to catch up, but the changes are still a considerable amount of time away.

While the discussion document recently published by social protection minister Dara Calleary points to the many positives an overhaul would bring it also states it would represent a significant change and would, therefore, require very careful design, and a detailed analysis of the effects on other payments across the social welfare system, including secondary payments such as fuel allowance.

It acknowledges any change would need to ensure this vulnerable group do not see a reduction in income supports.

But the document also cautions it will take both time and money to design and implement a new system.

Decisions like this are ultimately political and when asked about how long it might take to rollout the new supports, Mr Egan said "with a fair wind behind us" the department would have the detailed design drawn up and the IT structure in place ready for ministerial approval by late 2028, and ready for introduction in 2029.

"Yeah, and then we’ll be right into an election, so it's not going to happen,” responded Fine Gael TD Willie Aird, perhaps saying aloud what everyone in the room was thinking.