Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 6 July 2023
106. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Minister for Social Protection if core social welfare rates will be adjusted in the next budget (details supplied) to match the rate of inflation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33417/23]
View answerWill core social welfare rates be adjusted in the next budget to match the rate of inflation, and will the Minister make a statement on the matter?
I thank Deputy Gannon for raising this matter. I recognise the challenges that the increased cost of living has brought to many households. The Parliament is very well aware of the pressures faced by households and has not been found wanting.
Last September, I announced the largest social protection budget in the history of the State, comprising measures worth almost €2.2 billion. This budget provided a combination of eight lump sum payments and a €12 across-the-board increase in weekly rates – the largest such increase since the mid-2000s – along with targeted increases to payments such as the fuel allowance. These increases were on top of other measures taken in advance of the budget, including energy credits, a fuel allowance lump sum in spring 2022 and an increased back-to-school clothing and footwear payment. Other measures taken by the Government include reductions in transport fees and the waiving of examination fees for second level students.
Even ignoring these additional measures, ESRI analysis has found that budget 2023 delivered for lower-income households, who were found to be better off than if they had just received an inflation-indexed increase in basic rates.
This year, on top of the budget measures, we provided a further €410 million in additional supports to households in need. This included a €200 lump-sum payment in April, a €100 child benefit lump sum paid last month and an additional payment of a €100 back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance per child, which will be paid from next week.
I value and support the work of the minimum essential standard of living, MESL, research centre. As the Deputy may be aware, its work is funded by my Department and has a valuable input into our policy-making process. The Deputy may be aware that the Department runs a pre-budget forum each year at which stakeholders and advocacy groups, including the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, have an opportunity to meet me and present their proposals for measures they would like to see included in the budget. This year's forum is to be held on 19 July.
Decisions about budget 2024 will be made in the coming months. In working with my ministerial colleagues, I will continue to take account of the recommendations of the stakeholders and I look forward to responding to changes in the cost of living. The Deputy can be assured that, again, this Government will not be found wanting.
I do not doubt the Minister's interest in the subject but we potentially disagree on what the rates should look like. The MESL, the minimum essential standard of living that a person needs to live a life of dignity, is substantially above what current core social welfare payments. The argument made by several people who work in this field is that some of the once-off payments are just that – once-off payments – and people are hungry again a week later.
The cost of a basket of goods has increased by 10% nationally and 13% in cities over the past 12 months. We live in a country in which 760,000 people are living in, or are at risk of, poverty. The only sure way of combating this is to increase core social welfare rates. Is that the Minister's intention to increase core social welfare rates? The Vincentian research trust has highlighted that anything less than a €27 increase in core social welfare rates will mean people will fall below the poverty line.
I thank the Deputy. He will agree that the Government, since its formation in 2020, has provided unprecedented supports to protect people and families, first during the pandemic and then with the cost of living. We provided €19 billion in direct income supports through the pandemic unemployment payment and wage subsidy scheme. Those supports were put in place quickly and helped to ensure the country would rebound strongly. That is why we now have full employment and more people at work than ever before.
I know things are not easy for people at the moment. We all see when we go into a shop that the price of a basket of groceries has gone up, but thankfully some supermarket chains have announced price reductions in recent weeks. I hope we will see more of that. In fairness, the Government has done a lot to help people with the rise in the cost of living. Between October and December, we made eight separate lump-sum payments, at a cost of over €1.3 billion.
Let me give an example of what the Government is doing. Only this week, it announced changes to extend the free general practitioner card to an additional 500,000 people, including many on middle incomes because they too are under pressure as well. While a pensioner on a fuel allowance got a €12 increase, all the lump sums add up to an extra €2,331 per annum this year.
I cannot unsee the circumstances that exist in the absence of the pandemic unemployment payment, which was very welcome, having been set at a rate of €350 to recognise that people coming out of employment through no fault of their own would not be able to live on core social welfare rates. It is very difficult to unsee that social welfare rates have increased by only €5 a couple of years after the pandemic. In the absence of targeting the lump sum payments that the Minister referred to at the most vulnerable, meaning that they were being availed of by people who did not need them, such as those with second homes and millionaires, there were people choosing between heating their homes and feeding their families. I am very conscious that although we are now in the summer months, we will be moving into the winter shortly, meaning people will be making such hard choices again. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul and other organisations have highlighted that people are still going without basic necessities such as food and, heaven forbid, a night out so they can provide for their families.
That is still the situation in this country. The only way of combating it is by targeted increases in core social welfare payments.
Nobody should be going without food. The additional needs payment is available and people can apply for it. It is there to be paid out and I encourage people, if they are in any sort of difficulty such as the Deputy mentioned, to go to their community welfare officer or make a telephone call. There is an online presence as well. I do not want to hear about anybody going without food. That really should not be happening. I ask the Deputy to bring any examples to me and I will look at them personally. People should not be going without food. The additional needs payment is the State safety net and it is there for people. I would like to make them aware of that because nobody should be going without food.
We gave a €12 increase right across the board at the beginning of this year. In addition to that, taking the example of a pensioner in receipt of the fuel allowance, adding up the lump sums gives the equivalent of €45 per week over a year. That is a fair bit extra. The survey on income and living conditions data that were produced did not include the lump sum payments because the data were based on the 2021 figures. When the €12 weekly increase is added to the €45 lump sum payments, people are better off to the tune of €57 per week. They absolutely needed that money.
The budget is coming up. We have listened to stakeholders and I am very conscious that some people are in a difficult situation. We want to help them. I repeat that people should go to their community welfare officer if they are in difficulty.
