Welfare payments - We must not forget our new poor

ALMOST 42,000 people are on emergency payments under the basic supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which is designed to provide a safety net for the social welfare system by providing a small weekly allowance to people with little or no income.

When people hear welfare statistics they may tend to take the plight of such people for granted on the flippant assumption that the poor will always be with us, but people on supplementary welfare are the new poor, often the forgotten victims of the current economic downturn.

The latest figures are a reflection of how bad things are becoming, as the cost of this form of welfare spirals and the Exchequer’s resources diminish as the result of other pressures. In 2007 there were 27,379 people receiving supplementary welfare payments at a cost of €150 million, but the number increased by 29.8% the following year, and the cost jumped to €184m.