High prices are eroding the benefit of increases in social welfare, writes Carl O'Brien, Social Affairs Correspondent
EVERY THURSDAY as Rose Dooley goes about her weekly grocery shop, she tries to stretch her small budget as far as it will possibly go.
After collecting her carer's allowance from the post office in Ballyfermot, paying her bills and other essential items, she is left with €140 to spend on groceries for her husband and children. Since food prices began their steep increase, stretching her budget is becoming an increasingly difficult feat.
"All that money goes on the bare essentials - and it doesn't include bread and milk, which I try to get during the week. There's no room for any small luxury. I might have got a bit of ice-cream before for my daughter or a chocolate bar, but not now. There's just about enough to get own-brand food to last the week," she says.
"For a few years . . . I think we all got a bit laid back and put that bit extra into the basket. I'd get a few things every day rather than getting the weekly shop. Those days are over now. I can't afford to buy branded food anymore. It feels like the 1980s, because you know the price of everything Bread, cereals and meat have really shot up."
As well as hunting for special offers, Rose takes extra effort to ensure she has enough to buy fresh fruit and vegetables for her husband who is a diabetic and suffers from a heart condition. But fresh, healthy food costs more.
"I try to make dinner as healthy as possible. My husband needs a low-fat, low-sugar diet. So that means trying to get fresh fruits, low-fat yoghurts, staying away from anything with added salt. Cheaper food tends to be less healthy, so you can't get that stuff."
These are dilemmas shared by many families on low incomes, says Sr Bernadette McMahon of the Vincentian Partnership for Social Justice.
Research by the organisation shows there have been significant improvements in living standards for many low-income families over the past two years, due to increases in social welfare payments and the minimum wage. But this progress had stalled due to smaller social welfare increases in the Budget, and the erosion of their value by inflation.
"Increases in social transfers and the improve minimum wages has helped many people," she says. "The problem for people like Rose is that increases in food prices, fuel and inflation hit these individuals much harder than others. They are enough to knock many completely off kilter."
In the meantime, Rose is developing new survival strategies to ensure she has enough at the end of each week to feed her family. These days she hunts for special offers on bulk items like toilet roll and washing powder rather than picking them up each week or so. She pops into shops like Lidl for special offers they have on individual items. In short, she pays much more attention to stretching her budget as far as it will go. "You have to do that, because every cent is gone at the end of the week. There's virtually nothing left to save," she says.