The Poor can’t pay

Published: Monday, October 18, 2010

Release Date: Monday 18th October 2010

Comments Made By Susan McKay, chief executive of the National Women's Council of Ireland (NWCI) at The Poor Can't Pay launch of Campaign to Demand that TDs Protect People on Lowest Incomes from Further Cuts

We live in a country in which a bankrupt property developer can tell a judge that he needs €4,000 a week for personal expenses, and in which, in the next four to five months, up to 2,000 old people will die because they can't keep warm. We live in a country in which an ex banker whose recklessness and greed cost the state billions, can jet off to this second home in the US and start a new life with impunity, while a woman who gets into debt with a credit card company to pay household bills is sent to jail.
Ahead of its December budget, the government of this country is talking ominously about making 'difficult decisions'. The minister with responsibility for social welfare warned yesterday that his department will not be exempt. We know from experience that 'making difficult decisions' is code for making cuts which will hurt those who have the least power to resist.
A 'difficult decision' is one which involves an elderly woman losing part of her meagre pension, a blind man losing €6 from his income, or a mentally ill person who is homeless having to pay towards his or her prescription charges. Ireland remains one of the richest economies in the world, and if we were half the caring society that we like to think of ourselves as being these would not be 'difficult' decisions. They would be impossible decisions.
If there is one thing that should frighten people on low incomes more than a 'difficult decision' it is a painful decision. We know that it is the poor who will feel the pain.
But then if hitting the poor and defenseless is 'a difficult decision' for the Government what would we call a decision that ensured that those who caused this crisis actually paid toward the cost of it? That those who amasssed vast wealth during the boom now made some contribution to sorting out the problem? Well, that would not be a difficult decision, that would be an unthinkable decision.

We are expected to believe that the enormous sums of money paid to landowners for development land have all just evaporated, leaving just their shadow in the mortgages of homeowners. Many of these homeowners have since lost the jobs they worked hard at during the boom. They are now finding it hard to keep up mortgage payments on the flats and houses built on that overpriced land. The government would have us believe the only way to balance the books is to cut their unemployment payments.

The government would have us believe that the most extravagant folly of the Celtic Tiger years was the increase in Child Benefit - before last years budget there was more discussion about decisions as to whether to cut, tax or means test this than there was about any other potential measure. It has started again this year, and many of those contributing to the debate about it are just as ill informed as they were a year ago.
The National Women's Council along with the local community organisations, trades unions and charities which form 'The Poor Can't Pay' coalition accept that our present economic crisis requires that there be cutbacks in expenditure and increases in taxation.
These taxes and cutbacks will fall on ordinary people who are already experiencing hardship and difficulty arising from the economic crisis. We know that the vast majority of the people who will experience a fall in their standard of living during the next few years did no more to cause the problems than the unemployed person or the pensioners that this campaign has been set up to protect.
What we are saying is that those on the lowest incomes are already carrying the greatest burden and they cannot be expected to carry any more.
We have a simple but important message to deliver today on behalf of people already at risk of or living in poverty in Ireland. These are the individuals and families who were hit most by last years budget cuts and who are struggling by on the lowest incomes in Ireland. These are the individuals and families who are most fearful of what is coming next. They face the real fear that it will be them who will again be unfairly targeted through cuts.
We do not believe that this reflects the views of ordinary Irish people, who we believe retain a sense of justice which our Government seems to have mislaid.
The Poor Can't Pay campaign, in advance of Budget 2010 last year, argued that the poorest households cannot afford reductions in wages or benefit levels.
The Government chose to ignore our arguments, and as demonstrated in our analysis of the impact of the budget, How The Poor Were Made To Pay, placed much of the burden of addressing the crisis in public finances on those with the lowest incomes. Inevitibly, this pushed already hard pressed individuals and families further into poverty and hardship.
And remember how fast they ran the legislation to cut welfare through the Dail. Normally it takes weeks for officials to write the legislation and the Oireachtas to debate it. Last year they were so scared that TDs would awake to the disgraceful proposals they were being asked to endorse they rushed it through before they went home for Christmas.
It was passed nearly as quickly as the Bank Guarantee and the legislation a few years ago to protect the beef industry. It seems that the Dail can only really move quickly when it comes to protecting the very rich and 'making painful decisions' for the very poor.
Many households suffered not just one but multiple income cuts. These included:
o A further cut of 5% to social welfare payments.
o A scrapping of the Christmas welfare bonus, the equivalent of a 1.9% cut in payments.
o An added cost of a new prescription charge. This has had the biggest effect on older people living in small households or on their own.
o A new carbon tax which impacts more severely on low income households with less energy efficient homes.
Over the last few months we have been working with the people who experienced these cuts, and the organisations which represent them. We have been working to find ways in which we can convey the reality of life on the lowest incomes to the wide population which is struggling with its own serious problems.
These web videos we are launching today are a bleak reminder of the human impact that these cuts have had on those who are most vulnerable to poverty; the unemployed, people experiencing homelessness, people with disabilities, the elderly, those on the minimum wage, children growing up in poverty.
- A newly unemployed 22-24 year old single person is expected to live on €150 a week, 33% below the poverty line.
- The household income of a person claiming the blind pension dropped by €8 from its 2009 level, giving them a weekly income €329 per week.
- The household income of working lone parent with one child dropped by €17.70 from its 2009 level, giving them a weekly income of €441 before childcare costs are taken into account and €291 after childcare. This is €7 per week or 2% below the poverty line. The vast majority of lone parents are women.
- Older people, particularly the 50% solely dependent upon the state pension for their income, also faced increasing charges this year.
- Among those living alone, the majority of whom are older women, 36% have incomes so low that they risk living in poverty
- The fall in the cost of living in 2009 did not lift these households out of poverty, and cuts in wages, working hours and welfare payments pushed them deeper in.
Far from being protected, people on the lowest incomes have been amongst the hardest hit by the first phase of cutbacks. Further cuts will lead to more people going without food and essential healthcare. More households living in the rental market will be forced to move from their home. More pensioners will be left wondering if they can afford to keep the heat on when the summer is over. More of them will die because they realise they can't.
When we talk about protecting the poorest we are not talking in general terms, we are calling on the Government to protect the incomes of those whose current income is near, on or below the Government's own definition of income poverty. The Women's Council has been involved in The Poor Can't Pay since it was established last year because of our awareness that poverty falls most heavily upon women. Women are more at risk of poverty than men, and by and large it is women who bear the brunt of trying to make ends meet in families, with all the stress that this involves.
Shockingly, that stress includes for far too many women, the increased risk of domestic violence. Refuges and other services which among the members of the Women's Council are noting increases of 40% or more in demand for their services in the past year. Funding is meanwhile being seriously cut.
We are determined to fight for policies that cut both the overall rate of poverty and its disproportionate impact on women.
The Poor Can't Pay is here today to demand that the Government protects the 14% of the population living in poverty, 200,000 of whom are children, 116,000 of whom are in employment.
The statistics are shocking, and tell the story one way. These short films give a human face to those figures.
As a society we must protest about the fact that the unemployed, the homeless, older people, or parents of children already living in poverty are being asked once again to pay the economic and social cost of this recession.
We are asking people to watch these two videos, to think about the experience of living on the lowest incomes. To reflect on the risk that all of us face that, through no fault of our own, we may need to rely on society's safety net. To reflect that it is the most basic form of social solidarity to ensure that that safety net is kept in good order. We want people to pass the videos on to their friends and colleagues and to talk about them and the message they contain. Most of all we want people to contact their local Tds and Senators and let them know that we have not lost our sense of justice.
We have a State bank guarantee. We have the Croke Park agreement which guarantees that civil servants will experience no further cuts to their income. So how can it be that there are no guarantees for the most vulnerable?
"The poorest people in Ireland have already paid more than their fair share. Further reductions to their incomes and cuts to vital services will cause hardship for hundreds of thousands of people. The Poor Can't Pay coalition is urging every TD to make a commitment by pledging their support for this campaign. We need people to send the message that in this crisis Ireland must rediscover its humanity and sense of what is right - and set as a fundamental value that 'the poor can't pay'. This shouldn't be a hard decision.

Editors Notes.

The "Time to Make a Commitment" campaign features two short videos which explain the terrible impact Government cuts have already had on families and people struggling on low incomes and social welfare, including young children, people that are homeless, the unemployed, those on the minimum wage, people with disabilities and older people. The videos can be viewed on www.youtube.com/thepoorcantpay.

The videos were sent in an email to every TD and Senator this morning by the Poor Can't Pay, highlighting the impact 2010's budget cuts have already had on the lives of many people in Ireland struggling to get by on low incomes and social welfare. The Poor Can't Pay appealed to Oireachtas members to stand up and pledge their support to protect people on the lowest incomes in Budget 2011.

To date the Poor Can't Pay's online campaign has already seen cross party support from politicians including T.D.'s. Fianna Fáil's Michael Moynihan, Green Party's Ciarán Cuffe, Labour's Joan Burton. Sinn Féin's Aengus Ó Snodaigh and Fine Gael's Padraic McCormack have all signed up to support the campaign. However only 14% of TDs in total have signed up to do all they can to protect those on low incomes.

Public representatives who haven't yet done so can demonstrate their commitment to protect people on low incomes by signing up to this important initiative on www.thepoorcantpay.ie.

Members of the public can lobby their local TDs. They can send a pre-written letter from www.thepoorcantpay.ie to all their local political representatives.

Members of the Poor Can't Pay include: Age Action, Barnardos, EAPN Ireland, Focus Ireland, Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed, Mandate, the National Women's Council of Ireland, SIPTU, Saint Vincent de Paul and Social Justice Ireland.

More information at www.thepoorcantpay.ie.