I propose to take Question Nos. 107 and
128
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 as outlined in the table.
Year
|
Child Benefit
|
Family Income Supplement
|
Qualified Child Increases
|
BTSCFA
|
Total spending
|
|
€million
|
€million
|
€million
|
€million
|
€million
|
2012
(Estimated)
|
2,078.6
|
199.5
|
698.0
|
63.7
|
3,040
|
The Government is conscious that these payments are an important source of income for families, particularly during a time of recession and unemployment. Any plans to change the amount paid in respect of such payments will be a matter to be decided in a budgetary context and announced on Budget day. I do not therefore propose to speculate on any possible approaches to child benefit payment rates changes, on whether it should be income-tested or on any question of compensating vulnerable families through increases in other payments at this time.
As part of the budget process, my Department conducts extensive analysis of the impacts of possible budgetary decisions and in particular of the likely impact on poverty outcomes. The financial impact of proposals on various family types is also examined.
In relation to the question on ‘debt arising from ordinary living expenses’, I have assumed that the statistics quoted in the question relate to the recently published CSO report entitled “Survey of Income and Living Conditions (SILC): Thematic Report on Children 2004 – 2010”.
The publication does show that among several indicators of household deprivation, the indicator for those reporting that they are in debt from ordinary living expenses is higher in households with children (at 17.9%) than in households without children (at 6.5%). I would point out that the social protection system already plays a very significant role in protecting vulnerable families from the problems associated with low-income including indebtedness. For instance, the SILC data also show that 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.