Frances Black (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Amendment No. 5 seeks a report on the adequacy of social protection payments and options for benchmarking social protection payments to the minimum essential standard of living. This year, the MESL research centre had recommended a €27.50 increase to core adult social welfare rates but, instead, what we got in the budget was €12. In its post-budget analysis, the MESL research centre noted the purchasing power of core social protection supports had not been maintained and, as a result, the adjustments are a real-terms cut. From 2020 to 2023, the real value of core working-age weekly social welfare supports has fallen by six to 12 percentage points. These measures are likely to compound the deepening and widening of income inadequacy that developed this year so it is clear that the core social welfare rate increases this year were, in fact, a real-terms cut. Others have affirmed this. The ESRI this year noted in its post-budget analysis that low and middle-income households are still in a catch-up phase after successive below-inflation increases to social welfare and tax. Increases in social protection rates are simply not keeping pace with inflation.

The ESRI also said that with inflation moderating, there is a need to move away from one-off payments and to benchmark social welfare payments to provide certainty. This ESRI recommendation for benchmarking of social welfare payments, rather than an overreliance on one-off measures, is a call that is echoed across civil society. People need income adequacy and income security. Security means consistency and it means certainty. We often hear budgets being called “bumper” or “giveaway” budgets in the media, and we hear the figure quoted again and again for the overall budget package, whether it is €10 billion or otherwise in a given year. However, income adequacy is about consistency. We can only have income adequacy if everyone, including those receiving social protection payments, knows they have enough money coming into the household, week in, week out. That certainty and security does not come with one-off payments that people do not know are coming again next year or the year after.

As we call for every year in the social welfare Bill, we must see social protection payments raised substantially, not just by a few euro each year but to a meaningful level that is calculated to meet the needs of families. Once rates are raised to that level, they need to stay there and we need an adequate rate of social welfare paid, week in, week out, and not via once-off payments. The MESL provides a benchmark for this truly adequate rate of social welfare and we need to begin using this to guide social welfare policy. Every year, after the budget, we see the new social welfare rates compared to the MESL benchmark rates and, every year, we see that they are too low, and this is after the fact.Why is the MESL not being used to guide the budget measures in the first place? The Government is urged to look to this research every year in advance of the budget but every year we see that the recommendations are not followed. There is no excuse anymore. We had the second-largest budget surplus in the EU this year and we are on track to accumulate a surplus of €65 billion by 2027. That figure is staggering. If not now then when will truly adequate social protection rates in this country ever be a priority for Government?