WELFARE PAYMENTS:Welfare payments such as the pension, child benefit and the jobseeker's allowance will increase in excess of projected inflation levels next year.
The €900 million spending package is larger than many expected, but less than the increase in welfare payments before last year's election, which was worth €1.4 billion.
Most welfare payments will rise by between 6 per cent and 7 per cent next year, resulting in an increase of between €12 and €14 a week for pensioners and €6 and €8 for child-benefit recipients.
Inflation is currently running at just under 5 per cent, although the Government projects this will fall to about 3 per cent next year.
Minister for Social and Family Affairs Martin Cullen yesterday said the increases would safeguard the real value of all social welfare payments.
"The scale and size of this package maintains the momentum set up over the last few years and underlines the deeply-held philosophy of Fianna Fáil-led governments in focusing welfare improvement on the less well-off, pensioners and children," he said.
Pensioners were the biggest welfare winners in yesterday's Budget with a €12 increase in the State pension and a €14 increase in the contributory pension.
Payments to qualified adults of contributory pensioners will increase by up to €27 per week. This almost completes the Government's pledge to bring pensioner qualified adults to the level of the non-contributory State pension. This move will benefit 42,000 people.
Payments aimed at children have also risen across the board. Child benefit rates will increase by €6 and €8 per month to €166 and €203 per month for first and second children. The childcare supplement will also rise by €100 a year to €1,100.
These universal payments will take up the bulk of an extra €200 million directed at children.
Increases in payments specifically targeted at children in families on low income or on social welfare include an extra €2 for the child dependent allowance, bringing the weekly rate up to €24.
Family income thresholds will rise by €10 per week per child, while the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance will increase by €20 per child from €180 to €200 for the youngest children.
Campaigners against poverty have criticised the size of the increases in payments targeted at children at risk of poverty.
Mr Cullen, however, insisted that the increases, combined with universal payments such as child benefit, were significant.
For example, he said welfare payments for a child aged under six in a family on social welfare would increase by almost €300 a year to €4,564.
The payment schedule will see the increases coming into force between January and April of next year.
