Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 16 October 2012
92. Deputy Seán Crowe asked the Minister for Social Protection if her attention has been drawn to the Central Statistics Office figures published last month which indicated that the income of households with children fell five times more than childless households between 2009 and 2010; and her plans to protect children from further income drops in the recession. [44563/12]
View answer96. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for Social Protection if she has consulted or is planning to consult with the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, in the interests of the imprescriptible rights of children with regard to any planned cuts to child benefit, back to school allowance, family income supplement, back to education allowance, carer's allowance, disability benefit and all other social protection payments which can impact on child welfare; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44582/12]
View answer107. Deputy John Halligan asked the Minister for Social Protection if she has consulted or is planning to consult with the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, in the interests of the imprescriptible rights of children with regard to any planned cuts to child benefit, back to school allowance, family income supplement, back to education allowance, carer's allowance, disability benefit and all other social protection payments which can impact on child welfare; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44580/12]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 92, 96 and 107 together.
Family and child income support payments assist parents in contributing to the costs associated with raising children and play a very important role in the objective of reducing child poverty. It should be noted that expenditure this year on child benefit, qualified child increases on primary social welfare payments, the family income supplement and the back to school clothing and footwear allowance is estimated to be just over €3 billion. The Government is conscious that these payments are an important source of income for families, particularly during a time of recession and unemployment. Furthermore, the Government is committed to tackling Ireland’s economic crisis in a way that is fair, balanced, and which recognises the need for social solidarity. In addressing the problems with the public finances, the Government will seek to ensure that resources are allocated fairly and that less well-off families are protected in so far as possible. Furthermore, the Government is acutely aware of the need to address child poverty as a priority as part of the National Action Plan for Social Inclusion 2007-2016 (NAPSincl) and in the Programme for Government. The recently completed review of the national poverty target also highlights the importance of addressing child poverty and will be published shortly.
I assume that the statistics cited by the Deputy relate to the recently published CSO report entitled “Survey of Income and Living Conditions (SILC): Thematic Report on Children 2004 – 2010”. The report publishes data related to household incomes for seven-year period up to 2010 and is derived from the CSO’s annual Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) from which data in relation to poverty up to 2010 had already been published. The report therefore covers a period before this government’s term of office began.
The Department is aware that the publication shows that average weekly gross income for all households with children less than 18 years did fall from €1,288.33 in 2009 to €1,184.00 in 2010 or a fall of 8.1% in the year. I am also aware that the corresponding data for households without children under 18 years were €924.65 and €902.23 respectively representing a fall of 2.4% in the year.
It should be borne in mind that these trends largely reflected the decline in household incomes generally, as a consequence of the economic downturn. Direct income of households with children (largely income from employment and self-employment) fell by almost 11% in the year 2010. In fact, it was an increase in average transfer payments of almost 2% that moderated the loss of gross income for such households to 8.1%. The operation of the tax and social contribution system served further to moderate this loss in net incomes to 7.4% compared to 2.3% for households without children.
While we must acknowledge this considerable loss in purchasing power, the moderation in the loss from direct to net incomes is largely due to the relative effectiveness of the social welfare system and the effect of family related social transfers. It can also be observed from CSO data in how the at risk of poverty rate for people living in households with children in 2010 decreased from 49.4 per cent when all social transfers were excluded to 18.7 per cent when all social transfers were included: a reduction of nearly 31 percentage points. This clearly demonstrates the role that social transfers, play in protecting people in households with children from poverty. More generally, the SILC data from this report also shows that the poverty reduction effect of social transfers for children has risen continuously from around 40% in 2004 to over 60% in 2010 as the social welfare system became more effective in addressing poverty in households with children.
Nonetheless, I am conscious that achieving a better design of the overall system of child income supports raises complex issues about the effectiveness and efficiency of the full range of income supports currently provided to families and their children. In this context and in line with a commitment in the Programme for Government, I established an Advisory Group on Tax and Social Welfare last year, which has been tasked with recommending cost-effective solutions as to how employment disincentives can be improved and better poverty outcomes achieved, particularly child poverty outcomes. The Advisory Group prioritised the area of family and child income supports and has completed its work on this area. Their report is currently receiving my consideration and will assist the Government in considering the effectiveness and efficiency of the current system of child income supports.
Any plans to change child and family income support payments will be a matter to be decided in a budgetary context and announced on Budget day. As the Government meets and acts collectively, Ministers regularly consult with their colleagues in Government on policy proposals and any implications that they might have in terms of children’s rights.
