Social welfare reality

DESPITE the hyperbole, the fact remains that the social welfare rates announced in the budget are the same as those in place in 2007, and the cost of living has fallen significantly since then.

Those on social welfare are better off today than they were at the height of the McCreevy and Cowen giveaway budgets.

So why are so many peddling this notion that people who depend on social welfare payments have suddenly been thrust into Dickensian squalor?