Mr. Se?n Moynihan:

Housing was mentioned. The whole social protection system is built on people owning housing. We all know since the most recent census there has been an 86% increase in the number of over-65s renting. The rate keeps going up in people in their early-60s and 50s also. The reality of social protection is how people will pay their rent in their old age and remain in their own homes. If they lose a spouse or partner, will they lose their home? How will we all cope with that? House ownership really comes into this because the system is built on it. They can live on a very low income as long as there are not housing costs. It is very interesting and it needs to be looked at as part of this.

Technology was mentioned. Where technology has to a role to play and where people want to be guided through multiple systems is the back office. Across Departments, systems behind the scenes can be simplified while still keeping a human face or easily accessible forms.

Some members spoke about universal payments and so on and where people go over income thresholds. Looking at people living on their own, 19.2% in 2022 were at risk of poverty. In 2023, that was 15.4%. We had the one-off cost-of-living measures in 2023 and if we did not, it would have been 36% of people living alone and on State pension at risk of poverty and we would be having a very different conversation here. There is a role to change the system in such a way so we put a floor under people for when these inflation and different economic spikes hit.