Social Justice Ireland asks Government to clarify how €3bn welfare increases are to be achieved by 2014

Social Justice Ireland’s analysis of the Government’s National Plan for Recovery 2011-2014 shows that social welfare rates are set to fall by between €40 and €62 a week for a single person by 2014 if the €3bn in welfare cuts are to be implemented.   The government’s suggestions on how savings in the welfare budget are to be achieved are simply not credible. The Plan contains nothing of substance to increase the number of jobs. The reality is that there will be no large reduction in unemployment unless there is a very high level of emigration. Is encouraging emigration the key to the government’s strategy to reduce the welfare bill?

The Government's documentation and newsreleases stated that the "planned savings over the coming years will be made in the first place from:

1. New fraud control measures,
2. Activation under the National Employment Action Plan,
3. Reduced unemployment as a result of growth in the economy, and
4. Structural changes to social welfare, that will over time, eliminate poverty traps and barriers to employment."

Social Justice Ireland does not believe that these measures will come anywhere near meeting the€3bn reduction in expendditure required.

Social Justice Ireland’s analysis shows that the reduction in the welfare budget over the four years (€3bn) is equivalent to a drop of €40 a week for a single person and €64 for a couple between 2011 and 2014 i.e. down from €196 a week to €156 for a single person.  
If contributory and non-contributory pensions are to be excluded and the reduction is spread across all other payments it will mean the equivalent of a reduction of €62 a week for single people and €99 a week for a couple i.e. down from €196 a week in 2010 to €134 in 2014 for a single person. This would represent a cut of 31% in the income of Ireland’s weak, sick, vulnerable and disabled people. When the cuts of Budget 2010 are included it means welfare recipients are being asked to take up to 35% in cuts in the 2010-2014 period.

These proposals are outrageous and unjust. Most of those receiving welfare payments are in poverty already. The latest poverty statistics released by the CSO today show poverty has risen in the past year. The 4-year plan is set to drive poverty levels much higher as well as driving people into ever-deepening poverty. This is unjust and unfair. Alternatives are required and are available.
The Four-Year Plan’s distribution of the adjustment (€10bn in cuts, €5bn in tax increases) is unjust and unfair. It should be the other way around. 
Ireland’s total tax-take is one of the lowest in the European Union. It is possible to raise Ireland’s total tax-take by €10bn and still remain a low-tax country. Instead Government proposes to target the poor, the sick and the low-paid while protecting the rich and the strong e.g. bond holders and the corporate sector. This approach is disgraceful, unjust and unfair.

The Government’s current approach to fiscal adjustment will seriously damage sick, poor and vulnerable people. This in stark contrast to the Government’s rhetoric which has constantly insisted it will protect these groups. The initiatives identified in its Four-Year National Recovery Plan mean that Ireland’s weakest groups will take the major part of the ‘hit’ for the reckless actions of the greedy, the incompetent, and the inept. Those who had no hand, act or part in creating Ireland’s current grave problems are being targeted to take an unjust and unfair proportion of the adjustment required