Dr. Karina Doorley:

The one-off payments were one potential solution to tackling the cost-of-living crisis this year. It was an understandable one in some ways due to the massive uncertainty around how inflation is going to progress next year, where energy prices are going to go, and so on. The trouble with one-off payments is they create an awful amount of uncertainty for people who are reliant on them. The Christmas bonus is a good example of this. It has historically been paid every year - for the last number of years anyway - but it is not announced until the budget after the year it relates to. In October an announcement is made for that Christmas that it either will be paid or a half-rate will be paid, or whatever it is. It seems to introduce a degree of uncertainty that is unnecessary for people who are dependent on social welfare. If we get to a stage where the one-off measures are becoming more common or being used as a prop for low-income households where their core rates of payment are not being indexed in line with inflation, then that is going to create more and more uncertainty and it seems a little unfair. In a situation like the one we are in at the moment where there is so much uncertainty about what is going to happen next year, the one-off payments are maybe a good solution while we figure out where inflation is going to stabilise at. It is unlikely it will roll back but on the off-chance, maybe the rate at which social welfare needs to increase to meet that - to be indexed in line with inflation whether it is wage inflation or price inflation - would be determined next year. It is important consideration is given to that next year and we are not continually relying on these one-off payments, which introduce this degree of uncertainty that seems unnecessary.