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.

The scheme, which is administered by community officers of the Health Service Executive, is a discretionary payment. Almost 20,000 – or more than half of the people receiving the supplementary payments – are awaiting jobseekers benefits, while a further 4,000 are waiting for a disability benefit, and a similar number are lone parents, whose children are totally innocent victims of their circumstances.

The Government has demonstrated almost inexhaustible understanding in dealing with the bankers and property speculators who got into financial difficulties through their own recklessness. Most of the people on supplementary assistance are victims of a change in circumstances for which they may have had neither responsibility nor control.

Against the backdrop of the operations of the National Assets Management Agency and the billions being provided in bank bailouts, it is important that people should realise that in this republic ordinary citizens in financial trouble deserve similar consideration.

The Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS) is being seriously stretched, as its client numbers are up by 10% on last year. It has already assisted almost 13,000 clients in the first half of 2010. More than 11,000 are new high support clients. Most are aged between 26 and 40, and 75% have a mortgage. Some 2,500 are married with children, and 2,000 are single with children. In the midst of their plight those people with young children may be driven to distraction. Hence they need sound financial advice. Almost 70% of the MABS clients are on social welfare.

Over 6,000 of the clients are in difficulties as a result of personal loans, while more than 3,500 have problems with credit card debts. Although they do bear personal responsibility for their own spending habits, they were also victims of the crazy spending spree in which the country as a whole became enmeshed.

MABS has assisted clients by helping them to organise a budget and by providing other forms of assistance, such as helping them to renegotiate their repayment arrangements with creditors, and providing assistance through a bill-paying facility operated by MABS in partnership with credit unions.