Christmas ‘treats’ in budget will not improve lives of poorest households, say advocacy groups

Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys heralded her Budget 2024 package as “the largest in the history of the State”. It would “put money in the pockets” of some of the most vulnerable groups coming into the winter.

Advocacy groups for the poorest, however, describe the announcement as a “lost opportunity”. Rather than make a serious attempt to change the lives of the poorest households, the Government has handed out Christmas “treats”, they say.

A swathe of one-off lump sums payable from next month appears impressive: in November €400 one-off payments will go to those in receipt of disability allowance, carer’s allowance and the working family payment; €200 to anyone getting the living alone allowance; €100 in respect of each child dependent on an adult in receipt of a core social welfare payment. And there will be €300 lump sum for anyone in receipt of the fuel allowance.

As well as these, there will be double payments of core social welfare payments in early December – the Christmas bonus – and another in January.

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Some households will benefit from multiples of these and could be in line for more than €1,000 into their hands, on top of the core welfare payments, between now and January. These cash boons will be extremely welcome, and necessary, as temperatures drop and prices remain stressfully high.

However, against a background of a third of older people over 65 years (63,000) and more than one in seven (190,000) children in poverty, an increase of just 5.5 per cent (€12) in core social welfare rates has inevitably disappointed.

Advocacy groups had called for increases of at least €25 a week to keep pace with inflation. While wealthier cohorts will benefit from tax changes providing permanent, bankable increases, the poorest get a few extra euro, leaving them “trailing further behind”, they say.

Social Justice Ireland (SJI) has long advocated for the benchmarking of social welfare rates to 27.5 per cent of average weekly earnings as the key instrument Government could use to tackle poverty. It was set as a target and reached by the then Fianna Fáil government in 2007.

This budget failed to do this and has, they say, “failed the poorest again”.

[ ‘Until the issue of the social contract is taken seriously, we are going to see the persistence of the poverty, the homelessness, the exclusion’ ]

“There’s no attempt whatever to reduce poverty in line with the Government’s own targets in the Roadmap for Social Inclusion 2020-2025,” says SJI.

“While one-off measures are welcome, they are no solution to the challenge of poverty and income adequacy. Indeed, when the one-off measures are stripped out, households on fixed incomes have been left behind again. A more appropriate increase in all core weekly welfare rates would enable households to buy essentials routinely and not as treats.”

The Society of St Vincent de Paul (SVP) said the “continued reliance on one-off measures leaves households exposed to the ongoing impact of the cost of living”.

It welcomed measures including the move to continue paying child benefit in respect of young people who reached 18 who were still in school and the increase in the working family payment threshold, but was “dismayed” that the qualified child payment, which is made in respect of children of adult social welfare recipients, would “only increase by €4″.

This was “well below the recommended increase of €10 for children under 12 and €15 for children over 12″, they said. “The inadequate increases in core rates will also mean families forgoing essentials as they still grapple with the cost-of-living crisis.”

Those working with older people and disabled people expressed similar disappointment. “Even with the one-off payments and the €12 pension increase, inflation will leave older people worse off in 2024 than this year,” said Seán Moynihan, chief executive of the Alone charity. “While any increase to the rates must always be welcomed, we must ask why Government have not provided security and certainty of income to older people when the State finances have never been in a better position.”

The AsIAm charity, which advocates for people with autism, had also called for a €25 increase in core rates. The budget did “not come close to meeting the needs of the autistic community”, it said.

“Last year we welcomed the introduction of a cost-of-disability payment for members of our community, a payment which was much needed. It is disappointing to see the Government end this payment, a result of which will have a negative impact on our community.”

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

Asked about these groups’ dismay and whether she was disappointed, Ms Humphreys said: “We can’t do everything. But I think this will certainly ease the burden as we head into Christmas and next year.”

It was important the budget be looked at “in the round,” she added. Citing one example in the press pack provided at her department’s budget briefing, of a fictional pensioner called “Michael” who is “in his 70s and lives alone”, she said someone like him would see an overall increase in his income next year of €1,710.60.

“Annualised”, she continued, this meant his weekly income was increasing by €32.89 a week. However, advocacy groups say such increases are concentrated in one-off payments and money is quickly spent after it is received.

More effective, surely, would be to increase weekly payments by the same €32 a week, benchmarking payments at about 30 per cent of average earnings. That, however, would bring core rates closer to €255 a week – a move to which, it appears, there is continuing resistance.