If child benefit is a universal payment, why are the children most in need excluded?

Child poverty exists in Ireland, and it will come as no surprise to many that it can also exist in direct provision. Children in our asylum process, regardless of their age or circumstances, receive just €29.80 per week and get no child benefit. While child benefit is described as a universal benefit, it is not universally paid.

Research conducted by St Vincent de Paul (SVP) in 2023, using the minimum essential standard of living methodology, shows that two-child families in direct provision have an income shortfall of about 50 per cent, approximately €117 to €140 every week. These figures were deduced from a best-case scenario, where basic needs (nutritional, transport, hygiene and sanitary) were being met by accommodation providers. Often, this is not the reality.

Research published today – undertaken by Sara Cid, and commissioned by the Irish Refugee Council and funded by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission – builds on the SVP findings. The research is based on surveys, focus groups and interviews with people seeking protection. The research shows that State support and accommodation is failing to meet the basic nutritional, hygiene and transportation needs of single people and families. Consequently, people are forced to spend their daily expenses allowance (DEA) on these necessities. The DEA, a weekly payment of €38.80 for adults and €29.80 for children, was not designed to cover these costs and is grossly inadequate to meet these needs. More than 80 per cent of respondents indicated that the DEA is insufficient to cover many of their children’s basic needs, and is far from adequate to allow for childcare expenses or saving for emergencies.

The research found that parents are forced to divert funds from some essential needs to afford others: more than 75 per cent of parents interviewed reported that a lack of finances prevented their children from joining social activities. One mother said, “Sometimes there are activities in school where they have to pay, and you do not want to make your child feel out of place by telling them you cannot attend this because we have no money.” Many mothers stated they lack the funds to take their children outside of their rooms over the summer. This is an extremely worrying finding. Community engagement and hobbies are essential to the mental health and social development of children. They are particularly necessary for children in the protection system who may already be facing ostracisation and isolation. Child benefit ensures better outcomes for children by addressing the costs associated with having a child. Why exclude this group of children who are obviously in need?

Government has quietly shelved its plan to end direct provision

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‘Direct provision takes away your ability to dream’

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‘Aside from the accommodation, I am happy. The children have integrated well, and enjoy it here’

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Minister has ‘concerns’ about people leaving direct provision system entering homeless services

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Many mothers stated they lack the funds to take their children outside of their rooms over the summer

Families and children living in direct provision have also been excluded from many of the recent cost-of-living supplemental payments and once-off supports aimed at alleviating the effects of inflation. This included a double payment of child benefit in November 2022 and, in June 2023, the State paid almost €300 million in additional €100 child benefit payments. By comparison, the approximate €6 million it would cost to extend child benefit, or an equivalent payment, to families in direct provision next year is a small price to pay for the impact it would have on the lives of children.

Much of the talk leading up to budget day next week will rightfully centre around the cost of living, and how much less our incomes are worth since previous budgets. For people in the asylum process, the last rise in the DEA was in 2018. A payments of €38.80 or €29.80 is worth considerably less than it was five years ago. Families in direct provision also have to contend with a perfect storm of increasing use of emergency accommodation, deteriorating standards, more isolated locations and further delays in receiving permission to work, stretching already tight budgets to breaking point.

[ Catherine Day: The direct provision system has reached its limits ]

[ Fintan O’Toole: Elevation of child poverty to national priority a genuine political breakthrough ]

There seems to be a lingering fear in Government that if we increase financial support for children in direct provision it will serve as an incentive and attract more people seeking protection to Ireland. The evidence does not support this. A recent report from the Economic and Social Research Institute found that people seeking protection often have very limited knowledge of social welfare policies in destination countries. An idea with so little empirical evidence should not be relied upon in public policy, nor should it be used to justify inequality. It is fundamentally wrong that a group of children who live, play and are educated in our society are specifically and pointedly excluded from support that their peers receive.

The approximate €6 million it would cost to extend child benefit to families in direct provision next year is a small price to pay

It is also worth noting that beneficiaries of temporary protection fleeing the war in Ukraine have been rightfully and automatically entitled to this payment since the soon after the Russian invasion. The fact that refugees from Ukraine receive the payment also undermines the habitual residence test argument previously used to oppose expanding child benefit to children in direct provision. A child forced to flee from any other country deserves the same, and failure to do so risks perpetuating a two-tier refugee system.

In the 2020 White Paper on ending direct provision, the Government committed to introducing a child benefit equivalent payment. There has been little tangible progress on the White Paper so far. Budget 2024 represents an opportunity for the Government to change this and advance a non-accommodation goal for those in the protection process.

The Irish asylum process faces huge challenges. There are many problems to address, and people are facing another difficult winter with possible homelessness and increased use of tents and dropping standards. The introduction of child benefit, or an equivalent, will not solve all these issues or some of the problems raised in this research. But it would ensure a basic floor of support.

Nick Henderson is the chief executive of the Irish Refugee Council